Better Late Than Never! The #redoctober Hawthorne!

From the bottom of my heart, I'm so sorry it took forever to get photos! 

So like, this has been finished for weeks. In fact, I finished it the day before Halloween except for the cuff buttonholes. And I have five or six makes, including things I made for the kids, finished PRIOR to this dress than I have yet to take anything but cell phone photos of. I'm seriously slack here.

But you love me anyway, right?

Pattern: Hawthorn from Colette Patterns
Fabric: rayon challis from fabric.com
Notions: 14 Shell Buttons from Lyanwood  $5
              Interfacing - stash
              Thread -stash
Amount of Fabric: 3.5 yards x $7
Total Cost: 29.50
Time To Complete: Five hours. Largely because of the cuffs and the fact that my first collar I stitched and pinked the WRONG SIDE and had to redo it.

Ok, so on with the show!  Somewhere around my 2TB hard drive are process photos but I didn't feel like hunting for them. I started with the size 14 and did a 4 inch total FBA. This is actually my third one but the first one with 3/4 sleeves. And my first time doing plackets! And they came out OK and I can't tell you just how happy I am about that. Oh, hey, I do have photos of that. I was very happy I decided to use light interfacing on the challis because they were fiddly enough as it was. Here's what I pulled from Instagram.

I block fused whole pieces on top of a towel with silk organza as a pressing cloth. The towel is necessary to keep from ending up with shiny patterns from the metal mesh of the ironing board.

I had to do a bit of correction with the lines after the fact. I have to say that the tutorial on doing plackets from Colette's blog has, by far, been the easiest to understand.

Top stitched goodness!

And here they are in all their finished glory! Pretty right? I used matching buttons for the plackets because I didn't want that red to be broken up. Oh, and I added pockets to the skirt because everything needs pockets. Ok, More photos!

Its Llladybird post Number One!

I should mention that I have found my new favorite place to take blog photos. I hadn't used it before because the doors to the storage area under the sun room (aka my sewing room) were rotted and falling apart. The Mister and his brother replaced them this spring. The wall is south facing and gets great afternoon light.

The fabric on this dress makes me super stinkin' happy. For realz. I was grinning like a fool the whole time. When I got most of it done and put it on my dress form I was like "Is this an old lady dress? It sure feel like it could be!" But the lovely sewcialists talked me into not giving up. Its all about making yourself happy, amirite?

And I shall leave you with my second favorite photo of this series. Did anyone else finish red makes late? What do you think of the Sewcialist color themes?

Llladybird Post Number Two!

Challis Chalet: The Simplicity 1880 Shirtwaist

You know, I'm sure there's an awful lot about this dress I could say, but I really don't feel like doing a process post tonight.  This is Simplicity 1880, one of the project runway ones. I can see why they are so popular now, as they are extremely well drafted. Suffice it to say that this is my wearable muslin. For the first time ever I went ahead and didn't make a muslin first. I pretty much have these kind of bodices figured out and I was pretty darn confident that I didn't need to test it. I think my next two makes are going to have cap sleeves though.

Oh, before we go on, don't forget to vote for the Sewcialist emblem!

This was an accidental photo of me walking back to pose. I liked it so here it is.

I'm not sure what I'm doing here but, hey, its a good shot of my backside. Mostly.

Check out that fantastic collar.  This was, I think, the moment where doing a notched collar finally sank in and made sense in my brain. Now if only I could wrap my head around pants geometry, the world would be a better place.

Pretty flared skirt. I wish I could show you how the fabric sort of sparkles and a close up makes it look like peacock feathers and ferns. My belt is vintage, probably 80's, from Nashville when I went to see the Golden Age of Couture exhibit and met Gertie in person.

I might look like my paternal grandmother in this photo.

That's all folks. I have two more of theses dresses planned, they are all meant to be work appropriate. I'll do a post on what modifications I made and a bit about getting the invisible side zip to be, well, invisible.

As for photos, I think for now on i'm going to take them in the morning when I'm backlit, or maybe another how for the sun to be down further. We'll see.

Cheers!

Altruistic Chalet Sewing

My daughter, upon walking in the door from school Friday afternoon, informed me that she needs a new bathing suit. Spring break is this week and Grandma is taking her to the aquatic center. Luckily for me, I already have the perfect fabric and the lovely and talented Katie was kind enough to send me a couple swim suit patterns, even traced one off for me. Sewing buddies are the best ever. :) I only got one one photo of Felicity in the suit, felt odd to post it outside of an actual swimming scene, so I'll save that for May.

Swim suit cut out

I'm a bit new to the idea of elasticizing a leg hole and probably could have done it a bit better. Again, Felicity doesn't seem to care. I used a latex elastic that, again, was a gift from Katie.

Finished suit laid out on her bedspread

However, in the spirit of April Challis month, I decided to make dress from purple leopard print challis for my daughter. (Whom shall henceforth be known as "elf girl" because ,according to my husband, I spawn elves instead of humans after him seeing this last set of photos.) I used this 70's boho pattern.

Simplicity 9389

I didn't take any in-progress photos. It took probably about 2.5 hours in all to put this together. I used some single fold bias tape from Mom's stash to use as the elastic guide. The ruffle piece said to cut out three total, I did two on the fold instead, so she's got an extra ruffly ruffle.

Elf Girl 

In all, the materials (including pattern) for bathing suit and dress cost me about $12.50 plus about five hours of sewing time due to learning curve (see: elastic). I'm fairly sure my construction, while not the prettiest, is sturdy and should hold up under the rough conditions they are bound to be put through.

She shall attend to her flock.

Have I mentioned she loves ALL THINGS ANIMAL PRINT. Seriously, all the things.And she stole her brothers flip flops.

And make flowers grow.

This is my backyard. My weeds already need mowing and I was just using the fireplace two days ago. 

And capture Mona Lisa's smile.

How does a 9 year old look so ancient? I haven't figured this out yet. I left the elastic out of the sleeves because it seems more modern look and feel.I wanted to turn the hem under on the sleeve but she wanted to wear it RIGHT THEN, so well. I guess when I can pry it off of her for washing I'll fix that.

Full length of the back.

Well, that's all I have to share for now. I still have my black wool/rayon dress hanging waiting for a zipper and hem. That was part of the reason for these two, I just needed something quick. Simon asked for swim trunks, but I don't have anything suitable for him on hand.

Patterns That Play Well with Challis

Source

Settle in darlings, lets have some brunch (because I know we all slept in) and discuss what kind of patterns work with challis. The more flowing the better, though not all challis is created equally, as we read in the last post. Some of it is heavier and can take a bit more structure than others. Here are few of my pairings:

I have  several fabrics I want to make Simplicity 1880 in, AND Sunni did a great sew-a-long last year which you can read about here.

This is a one way fabric and I just LOVE the border flowers, which will be the bottom of the skirt. You probably recognize this as Colette's Chantilly. I've made this before, so I won't have quite as much work to do to get it to fit. Other pattern ideas:

Tasia's Cambie Pattern

Vogue 8827, for a great work dress, particularly version B.

Simplicity's Cynthia Rowley 1872

SO those are my picks! What have you decided on? Let me know in the comments!

Challis - A History of Our Chalet's Namesake

Source: oscarmora.com viaLady on Pinterest

Hello Chalet guests, have a seat and lets talk a little bit about the history of our namesake, challis.

According to the dictionary is a lightweight plain-weave fabric of wool, cotton, etc., usually with a printed design. Which is all well and good, but doesn't really give us more information than that. So I figured I'd start with what a "lightweight plain weave" means.  Enter a text book from 1925*.

Click to embiggen.

"A plain weave" is where one weft yard passes evenly over one warp yard. This takes the least amount of material to make and is very inexpensive. The book goes on to say that challis is made from cotton and wool (rayon has not yet caught on).

Wool challis is light and soft and recommended for dresses and negligees. It will cost you (adjusted for inflation) anywhere from $13-25 dollars per yard (no wider than 39").

Cotton challis, however, is considered for inexpensive dresses and "comfortables" (lounge wear, I'm assuming).  This will run you anywhere from $2.50 to $24 a yard (also, no wider than 39").  

Now lets fast forward about 15 years, just before WWII was really under way. Chemists had been working on improving rayon, or "viscose" as it were to make it easier and more cost effective to manufacture. Somewhere around the 20's it started being called "artificial silk" and, as I looked, was not yet more than a foot note in text books but popular among households, until the 30's and the Great Depression.  But here's info according to DuPont's timeline.

About the time of the 1940's, DuPont started pushing rayon through what I can only assume are the original "infomercials".  I found an example from 1940 itself.

But rayon, and coincidentally, rayon challis, didn't catch on until the USA was fully embroiled in  WWII and rationing started.

After this country entered World War II practically no staple clothing fabrics of prewar quality were manufactured for the civilian. Some of the materials that homemakers used during peacetime in enormous quantities to clothe their families virtually disappeared from the civilian

consumer's market. No 80-square percale, no fine-count two-ply broadcloth or voile, and little gingham, chambray, muslin, nainsook, lawn, or poplin was available. These shortages were due in part to Government regulations which directed enormous quantities of textile goods to the armed forces. In order to stretch as far as possible the small amounts of fiber available, there was also a lowering of quality of textile materials made for home folks.

By the spring of 1944 the supply and variety of serviceable cotton fabrics were limited. The prewar backlog of materials of good quality was used up and the flow of these fabrics from the factories to the stores had almost ceased. In the small cities and towns, particularly those near military bases or camps, the shortage of staple materials was acute. Many of the few fabrics available, particularly the cottons, were so unattractive in design and color that they obviously would not have sold readily, if at all, in normal times. Rayons were generally more plentiful and more comparable to prewar fabrics than were the cottons, but some types of rayons were scarce. Wool and wool mixed fabrics were more plentiful than the cottons. Mixtures of wool and rayon were common, but few wool and cotton mixtures were on the market.

From early in 1944 until several months after the end of hostilities, homemakers in various parts of the United States found many of the available staple clothing fabrics so coarse and sleazy that they scarcely justified the money spent for 'hem or the time and energy used to make th jloth into garments. Many of the fabrics shrank and were faded by light and washing.

The relatively large volume of "too poor" fabrics might have been replaced by a smaller volume of materials of better quality if minimum quality standards had been set up for textile goods. Such standards under Government control would have prevented textile raw materials from being manufactured into inferior fabrics in this period of scarcity.

Before World War II considerable progress had been made in determining the physical characteristics of cotton woven goods such as broadcloth, chambray, gingham, and percale (5, 6,16,17).2

Federal specifications developed for the use of Government agencies in purchasing these goods have been in existence for several years (11, 12,13, 14). In these specifications for broadcloth and chambray differences in quality have been

designated. On the other hand, the quality of other classes of cotton and of various types of wool and rayon fabrics is not so generally known. The quality of various kinds of mixed fabrics composed of cotton, rayon, wool, and other fibers needs to be studied since they are becoming more and more common. Some of these fabrics are included in this study. Found here in Google Books, Quality of Fabrics Study in 1946

So, in essence, rayon and particularly challis, became popular because what else was there to use? Here are some vintage samples.

Source: etsy.com viaLady on Pinterest

Source: etsy.com viaLady on Pinterest

Source: etsy.com viaLady on Pinterest

Well, that concludes today's lesson. I hope you enjoyed it and learned something new!

The Challis Chalet Flickr Group

Source: buddhainteriors.tumblr.com viaLady on Pinterest

Welcome Dear Readers to your stay at the wonderful Challis Chalet!  (Thank You Ms. Grievances for that wonderful alliteration) Honored guests will find our amenities just perfect for your stitching delights. We have sewing rooms equipped with the finest machines and Colette worthy studio light. We also have breakfast and lunch nooks on demand with the finest culinary delights.

Source: gardenrooms.typepad.com viaLady on Pinterest

  You shall find your rooms filled with champagne  chocolate, and a Jacuzzi tub to soak the tired and aching muscles that come with sewing the day away while chatting with you best sewcialist friends.

Challis Chalet invites you to show off what lovely choices you have brought with you, fabrics and patterns.  You can join the Flickr group here. Please feel free to open up conversations for knowledge you'd like to share in our wonderful "discussion lounge".

The staff here can't wait to see what you have in store for us! And don't forget to grab the badge for your blog. Just right click and save to your computer from here.

April Challis - A Focus Month

*see below

I don't know about you, but I'm ready for Spring. Here in The South the pear trees and azaleas are blooming but its not really Spring weather yet. At least for us. I mean, yes its been raining lots but its still getting *gasp* BELOW FREEZING at night. I'm sure that's driving the farmers batty.

So, anyway, this idea was thought up somewhere around the end of Jungle January. I was all bummed out about not actually sewing jungle themed fabric that month and wanted another one. Then I looked at the enormous pile of rayon challis in my stash and thought "Hey! April Challis! It kinda rhymes with 'showers'". Except, not, because apparently its pronounced "shall-eee" because its some crazy foreign word that doesn't pronounce all its letters (Don't start. I know English isn't innocent either. I'm looking at you, knife, knock, and eight). Then I thought, hey, this is America, we mess shit up all the time so I'm gonna say its pronounced "shallis". So there. Neener.

The best part is, challis is the perfect fabric for Spring because its soft, drapey, and comes in a million floral prints. But also, its good for Autumn weather, use muted colors and longer sleeves. Add tights and boots for winter. So really, its the perfect transitional fabric, that way both hemispheres of our little global community can join in the fun.

Do you want to join in on this stash busting theme of the month? If so, just right click on the image and save to your computer and then upload to your blog. Please link back to me in a post!


*I pulled this image off of Pinterest and tried to find the original artist with Google Image Search, to no avail. If this is your artwork please let me know in the comments so that I can give you credit. I am not aiming to make any money off of your work. Thank You.

**When I'm not pressed for time I'm going to attempt "grab code" buttons.