Sewing in lace part six - and it IS a skirt!

With two and a half hours to go, my pencil skirt in dark blue soutache lace was completed. There is something with me and deadlines - the closer I get, the slower I become. But it is completed!

So I finished the waistband. (And then I notched the twill tape to make it lie smooth, and cross stitched it to the silk organza.)

And I finished the side seams, with burning the soutache edges and some stitches by hand. (A rather strange pose when you burn things. But I really didn't want to burn the skirt. After wearing the skirt for a day, I realised that the lace turns your tights to a fuzzy mess, so I'll either have to do something about it, or dedicate one pair of tights for the skirt. Right now, it's the former.

I'm very pleased how the skirt looks inside out - very couture if I may say so. Unfortunately, no one will ever see this again since I've covered it with lining.

I did the lining the easy way - measured the skirt at the widest point, took some acetate from the stash (silk was also an option, but it clings so much. I actually like acetate for linings.) and just ripped it to the right measurements. I marked centre front and sides, and then simply pleated along the waistband. I cut the edges with pinking shears and pressed the seam allowances. The only seam is centre back; fell stitching it to the zipper, fell stitching the seam, and finally fell stichting to the slit. And pick stitches for a very narrow double folded hem.

The final touch is always the label - and before that I removed basting threads for 16 minutes. (And one pin that I managed to sew into the hem - another 5 minutes.)

And then I wore the skirt when baby A got her name in church, together with her family and friends, and then after for some food and cakes. A great start for the skirt!

Read the whole story - in six parts - about this skirt, from beginning to end:

Part one, part two, part three, part four, part five and yes, you are reading part six. 

Sewing in lace part five - it's looking like a skirt!

The amount of hand sewing... I guess we can call it a couture experience. A lot has happened since my previous post: I've sewn all eight darts, cut them open, removed some of the soutache, hand overcast the edges and then catch-stitched them down to the silk organza.

Whew.

Then it was time to actually put it together. First I quickly pinned it together (centre back seam and side seams) and tried it on inside out, just to see the fit. It was actually rather good, so much better than the sky blue dress. So the next step was basting the seams to make a proper fitting, and also because I can't sew when it's only pinned. The soutache slides away from the seaming line and the fabrics shift if the layers aren't firmly basted. (I'm so grateful I basted the silk organza! I would be a mess otherwise.)

The fit was ok, but a bit hard to tell since basted seams tend to give a bit. But good enough, so I sewed the centre back seam, basted in a zipper and tried again. I needed to take in the front a bit over the hips, otherwise - a success! I sewed the side seams, cut down the seam allowances to 2 cm, pressed, removed some soutache (but not too much in case I need to let it out some day in the future), hand overcast the edges and catchstitched them to the organza.

Whew again.

I've also done the waistband; my own version of a faced waistline as described by Clare Shaeffer. First sewing a twill tape just next to the fold line, then cutting down the seam allowance and catchstitching to the organza, then securing some of the soutache that wanted to slip away, and finally fell stitched a wide cotton twill tape (that I folded).

My initial thought was to use Petersham - as Shaeffer suggests - but I thought it would be too bulky; and there's a bit more give in Petersham than the twill tape. I folded the twill tape; but not in the middle, since I wanted a single layer at the top where there is more bulk.

The hem is halfway done: the edge is hand overcast, and basted in place. Catchstitching on its way. The slit is almost done; I need to do something magical about the remaining lace edges. I think it will involve fire and needle... The zipper, hooks and eye and lining is left. Six days until Saturday!

By the way, this might be the reason why I would need to let it out:

Two nights of gluten free scones (almond and buckwheat flour and lots of dark chocolate) with too much butter and Dior or Die (yeah, right that any auctioneer would sell Christian Dior's Bar suit with loads of other couture clothes and not as a main feature...) and very soon a friend is picking me up for this:

The world's best dessert: vanilla ice-cream, salty caramel, dark chocolate and warm berries...

Sewing in lace part four - endless hand sewing

It feels like a never ending story of hand sewing. I don't mind per se; I like sewing by hand. I first basted the soutache lace to the silk layers. I did it at even 10 centimetres intervals, since I thought it would be handy for the next step.

Or rather - the next step was the rather nerve-racking cutting in the lace. No turning back, and tiny seam allowances centre back...

Then, the next step was to secure the lace permanently,and now the even rows of basting came in handy. I simply used a running stitch, tiny on the right sight in the middle of the soutache, and larger on the back, depending on the distance of the soutache.

A rather nice couple of hours of sewing, but now I have the real deal looming over my head. Will the darts and seams be too bulky? How do I finish the raw edges? Should I line it? And not too much time; I'm very much in doubt to whether I'll finish a blouse as well. Two weeks to go...

Sewing in lace part three - basting

Things never go as planned. I didn't sew all Wednesday; I lay in bed all day with a slight fever and cold that still hasn't quite left me. I've done some sewing today anyway, but I'm not feeling so alert...

Anyway, the silk organza is basted to the silk satin crêpe.

The lace, not really behaving as I would like it to behave, is now hanging, and will hang there until Friday, my next sewing day. I think it need to stretch out before I attach it to the silk layers. I've decided to treat all layers as one.

Yes, that is a rather marvellous sky blue vintage evening dress in tulle. I've had it for a few years, but never had a chance to wear it. (It's not ombré; it's bad lightning ;) )

Sewing in lace part two - threads, silk and more to decide

I guess this week's work with my dark blue lace pencil skirt can be described as one step forward and two steps back. On the forward part - I've decided, bought and had delivered the silk from Borovick! The colour is prefect, and will be just as beautiful on its own as a blouse.

I've also thread traced all the seam lines on both the organza and the lace.

(Yes, I re-traced the lower dart.) Why all this thread tracing? Don't I have anything better to do?

Well, apparently not. I would say there are two reasons for this. One is definitely re-discovering Marina at Frabjous Couture and becoming equally green with envy of her couture sewing and equally hugely inspired to incorporate more couture techniques to my own makings.

The other is I have no idea what I'm doing with this skirt. I can't cut these fabrics with ordinary 1,5 cm seam allowance and think everything would be ok. Crêpe satin is a pain in the ass to work with, the lace is so heavy and every seam will be on show if I don't do something special. Thread tracing at least gives me the knowledge of where the seam lines are - or should be - , from both sides. Marking with tracing paper on lace is impossible, almost impossible on organza and I wouldn't want to risk the crêpe satin (and I would only have the markings on one side anyway).

And you should know by know that I like to sew by hand. So all seams and darts are traced with silk thread from my lovely sewing table.

I do love both the hand and the colour of the final combination - the lace at the top, the inky blue-grey crêpe satin in the middle and the black silk organza at the bottom.

And the going back? Well, as I said, soutache lace is heavy. Will it start to sag and loose its shape? Should I (hand)sew it to the silk fabrics and treat all three as one layer? Another thing speaking in that direction is the insightful comment from Mary of Cloning Couture - won't the soutache fray? Mm, it might. It would help if I could burn all the ends, but the netting is in the way and melts faster than the soutache. So perhaps I have to give up the idea of overlapping... And that leaves me with rather bulky seams, and a bit too many darts...

And the lace isn't easy to press. Agony.

I had planned to do nothing but sew today, but it didn't turn out that way. Both because I was so tempted setting up my new laptop, but also because the sewing spirit's been lacking (I guess because I'm rather frightened of that soutache). Hopefully, I have renewed spirits on Wednesday. Tonight, I'll treat myself with Signé Chanel that I finally bought on DVD.

I saw the first episode with some coffee this afternoon, and I've forgotten how good it is. You are actually there, in their ateliers! I saw it years ago when you still could see a high resolution version on YouTube, (due to copyright it was of course removed). Since then I've wanted the DVD but thought it was too expensive. And it still is, but it's not getting cheaper so... I also found a new - old - book on couture sewing - Sew the French Way.

I've always found it rather strange that most sources on couture sewing are from USA when in fact it origins from Paris. Vintage Couture Tailoring is the only European example I know of. Sew the French Way by Line Jaque is from 1961 but first published in French in 1956 as Le Savoir-Coudre de Femmes d'Aujourd'hui and will accompany me tomorrow on a night away with work (if I'm not too occupied at the spa facilities...)

I hope I wake up on Wednesday morning with a clear plan for the soutache. Now, chocolate and Chanel!

Sewing in lace part one - planning, drafting and deciding

I've started working on my next sewing project - a pencil skirt in dark blue lace. Usually, I show you everything when I'm finished, but this time, I thought I'll write as I sew. We'll see how that goes. I have a clear deadline for this project - shortly after lunch, Saturday 2nd of October. I hope to finish another silk blouse as well - we'll definitely see how THAT goes.

First of all - the lace. I bought it as a remnant in Stockholm shortly before Christmas, and knew from the start that it would be turned into a pencil skirt. It's about the only thing possible to make - there was too little left for a dress or a wide skirt and it's too heavy for a blouse.

It took me a while just to find out what kind of lace I'm dealing with - according to the manufacturer's (Monterossi fabrics) Facebook-page it's a soutache lace. Makes sense, since it really is soutache on netting. The soutache is rather thick and heavy, so I think it'll be more difficult to handle than "ordinary" lace. How do you sew in it, and how to get invisible seams? It's not like a thinner lace, where you more easily can overlap. I spent an evening researching - books, Internet, playing with the lace and finally deciding that my best option is to remove the soutache from one part of the seam, and overlap the other, sew by hand and remove the netting afterwards.

I'll use a silk crêpe satin underneath the lace, and wrote out to several resources in Sweden and Britain to find the right colour match. The silks from Beckford silk and Borowick Fabrics (where I bought a lovely rayon grosgrain when I visited), and also some small samples from SidenCarlson in Stockholm, are amazing and I almost got too many options to choose from .

I didn't want black or dark blue as to really let the lace show, but I didn't like it with a too light background either. Here are the final three, and I've made up my mind a lot of times. But then I see them from a different angle or in a different light, and change my mind again. Satin is so tricky!

I know, the differences aren't huge... I'll pass on the one in the middle, so it's either the slightly lighter and bluer to the left or the slightly darker and greyer to the right. And I need to decide soon, so I can order it and have it shipped. (The samples arrived in no time, so I'm fairly confident I can have it by the end of the week if I just decide!)

I'll underline the silk with silk organza to give it some more stability and be able to carry the heavy lace. It will also make seam finishing, hemming and sewing all the darts so much easier. A wide Petersham ribbon will give support to the high waist (I hope! I am thinking about boning, but...)

Speaking of darts; I really liked the way both the double darts in the back and the split bust dart turned out on the sky blue dress, so I decided to make double darts in the front as well. At least in the silk parts, we'll see about the outer layer of lace.

I made a toile as usual, and after making some minor changes to the pattern, I spent an hour or so finding a good way to match the side seams - and most importantly the scallops at the bottom - and to find a good solution for the split in the back seam.

I put the lace over the front pattern piece, and marked centre front (in the middle of a scallop) and then where the side seams will be. Then I put the back pattern pieces under the lace, with the side seams starting at the same place on the scallop as where the front piece ends. Is that comprehensible? I also made some tweaking in the back pieces of the pattern to be able to get a nice seam line centre back. I do have a plan - let's hope it works out!

Now I'm going to have another look at the silk crêpe - brighter/bluer or darker/greyer? What do you think?