The Gown: Week One

I should just put "questioning my sanity" for every week of this project. Not only that, I've got a back-up plan for a dress because I do not want to take shortcuts and skimp on this dress.  It shall be THE couture gown in my closet. Taking a very old mentality on clothing, it should be something that lasts the test of time, to be lovingly cared for and not tossed to the floor like some cheap polyester princess.

Having said all that, I am going to add that this is a very intimidating project.  The number of new skills include major pattern alteration/drafting, hand basting fashion and underlining, soft pleats, six gored skirt, godets, and a hidden placket  in the side seam for snaps.  Because I'm making this out of such a lightweight silk I'm using acrylic snaps instead of a zipper.  It really took some mental mustering to even get out my resources.  I brought out my "Fitting and Pattern Alterations" text book, the "Couture Sewing Techniques" from Shaeffer, and of course the Susan Kalje online couture class.

I'm using Simplicity 1801 by Cynthia Rowley for the bodice portion, and Colette's Oolong for the skirt portion, and the article in Threads #155 by Susan Kalje in how to add vintage details (like godets) into a garment (not pictured).

So far I have managed to separate the pattern pieces and make seam lines.  I also made the full bust and rounded shoulder adjustments, as well as change the grain line on the Oolong skirt pieces from bias to straight of grain. There is something in the way of 12 pattern pieces once I include the eventually self-drafted sleeves, godets (six, one in each seam of the skirt), and facing pieces.

re-drafting the grain lines. 

 In the process of ironing and pinning the muslin I realized that I need another bolt of the stuff.  Luckily there's a nice sale going on this weekend at JoAnn's.  I also need to get some drafting supplies for my class, which doesn't help on the stress part but I'm still psyched about. Oh yeah, and the kids are going back to school and they are asking me about making them clothes. Which I guess is kinda cool, but uh.. not now.  (Costume October is coming up, yo. I just made that up, I might make it a yearly event).

laying out the pieces

 This photo should be self explanatory to my sewing readers, but a lot of my non-sewing friends read this I'll go into more detail.  This is what is called the couture muslin.  In most home sewing you mark the cutting line then stitch in from there a set distance. This is not very accurate, so with this level of sewing you mark the stitching line, in this case I'm using a very large sheet of wax paper and a pattern marking wheel.

pattern marking wheel

What this does is transfer the marks to the back side of the pattern.  I then will take the paper patterns off, re-pin inside the stitching line and then trace over the marks on the other side so I have mirror images.  This gives me a full piece for those things on the fold, two for those not.  One must remember we are taking flat cloth and engineering it to something that fits to an often non symmetrical body.

the other side

I will then cut this out with VERY large seam allowances and machine baste (sewing with wide stitches that are easy to take out), or pin, then do a first fitting of the bodice. The second muslin fitting will include the skirt portions.

My intention here is to also log the number of hours spent on this project and do a running tally of what it would cost if I were charging someone by the hour to make something at standard market wage for a couture level seamstress(albeit, beginner). $30hr
-----------

Materials: Six yards of coral silk crepe de chine(inherited), 5 yards of crepe de chine for lining (35),  1 yard of antique lace($15), 1 yard of 45" wide lace ($15) =$65
Hours put into this so far, not including blogging and daydreaming:   4 hrs = $120

In Which I use ALL the Machines!

Ok, first up, all give-a-ways are now closed!  I shall be rolling for the winners this weekend.  Also up for this weekend? Trying to finish the last of my knits that I cut out over a month ago, making my kids' beach outfits, and oh.. I dunno,  taking photos of all the outfits somewhere in there.

I might just pack all the un-blogged items  and take the photos at Jekyll Island, but that might be considered blogger cruelty.  HAHAHA.  Seriously, make this vacation get here or I might be on the news for all the wrong reasons. *ahem* Anyway.  So what's on my sewing table? Well, for starters, this:

These do not belong to my machine.

 See those little green bobbins?  Cute right? They go to my Mom's Viking (not pictured yet) and its a great machine, except I can't get it to wind a bobbin worth a tinker's damn. All the nicely wound bobbins in that box were done by Mom herself.  The one sticking up overfull and wonky?  Yeah... my attempt.  I've read the instructions multiple times and its just not working, and its not like I have an afterlife directory.  "Hello, Peter, yes please connect me to my Mom, I have an urgent sewing matter."   And quiji boards and seances are right out of the question too, so I had the brilliant idea to try and use my Brother to wind the bobbin.

On the left side of the ring, Brother! On the right, Singer overlocker!  Wadded fabric in the middle is one of four current projects. I'm a multi-tasker.

Small problem... they don't fit on the Brother bobbin winder.   Well crap. I know, I'll buy a Sidewinder!!  New problem... you have to get the DELUXE version for them to fit Viking bobbins. Which costs $66 instead of $26 dollars.  I think its a conspiracy against vikings. I mean the sewing machine, not my ancestral history.  Nobody pisses off those kind of Vikings, but I digress.  The whole reason I was going to use Mom's machine in the first place is because I just had it serviced and mine needs to go in the shop for some TLC.  Plan C, hook my machine back up and take over the kitchen table with the Bernina cover stitch machine.

Its a craigs list table. One day when I don't have  two dirt vortex catastrophe machines living in my house I'll invest in nicer furniture. And new flooring. 

Yes, I used all three machines. I'm just a few illegal immigrants short of a sweat shop. *badumdum TISSS*   So for those of you asking, no I'm not giving up the old serger because I've discovered having both is very convenient.  I have finally gotten the hang of making the cover stitch work on this machine, mostly.  You do have to fiddle with tension settings when changing fabrics.  The vaguely Asian looking knit below is being used to make Simplicity 2369 view A. The photo is the back side of the knit, its black and red on the correct side and a very yummy feeling microfiber knit. Unfortunately, its probably a polyester of some sort and won't breath well. Bad for outdoors in our insanely hot and humid weather, great for work.

Cutting knits is fun!

The reason for the cover stitch machine was to finish the hems on another dress from Vogue 8679. The hem turned out lovely, but the photo is really dark.

I then went to do a finishing stitch on the Simplicity dress front wrap piece and sewed it  wrong, not once, not twice, but THREE TIMES.  Coverstich seam ripping will make you want to rip your own hair out.  The fourth time was passable and I said "to hell with that" and left it.  No photo, at this point my son was awake, playing video games (his natural state) and asked "Are you yelling at me?"
"No, I'm yelling at inanimate objects".
"Oh good, glad to see you are feeling better",  (its been a bad couple of weeks) he says.  So yelling at inanimate objects is considered an improvement over the last few weeks.  This is why I need a real vacation, ya'll.  I'll also accept care packages of chocolate and vodka cocktails. But not molotov cocktails, those are illegal and make the postal workers crankier than me.

So, anyone else have seam ripping nightmares to share?? What's your favorite cocktail?