Seventies Dress: The Making Of

I think I might have promised some constructions notes on this some time back, right?  Well, here goes.  I went ahead and measured all the pattern pieces and determined that, for the most part, it would fit. I just needed to make a FBA.  Even though the cowl neck portion is cut on the bias, I didn't think it would stretch enough, or that it would but look bad.  Here's how to do an FBA on this type of princess seam.

1) First, go ahead and trace 1/2 of the bodice piece.  Trying to do both halves will make you to stab yourself in the leg, so don't do it. Trust me.

2) Go ahead and hold the traced piece up to yourself, wear a cami or something that you can pin it to, mark your bust apex.

3) Tape it over some other piece of paper.

4) This is very similar to the Roobios FBA (seriously, go read it), but I didn't want a side dart, so I put all the fullness into the underbust gathers.  You will want to redraw the stitching line using a French Curve.  And also, due to paranoia, I added about .5 inches of length. Which turned out to be a very bad idea. More on that in a minute.

Ok, so moving on to construction.  This thing is a FABRIC HOG! Seriously,  Ooona sent me over four yards of this fabric and in the end I had enough left over to make my daughter a top.  The thing about these sort of slippery slinky knits is to be very careful that you don't stretch it when laying it out in any way.  I was using the ironing board to pool the excess fabric on because I could only cut one large skirt panel out at once. I didn't take photos of this part, I was busy swearing and stressing out my husband. He got over it, eventually.

In any case, I had this clever plan of using bias cut fusible interfacing, also a lesson in things Not TO DO.  You can't get the iron hot enough for it to stay put.  I did manage to use the velvet pressing board my Mother left to me (those things are expensive! If you ever find one under 100 dollars GET IT RIGHT THEN).

needle boards also like to collect thread

In any case, I managed to get the whole thing cut out and sewn up in one night, to the point where I could try it on. Then tragedy struck!

saggy boob

The dreaded Saggy Boob (said in Heidi Klum's voice)! NOOOOOOoooOOoooo!!!  I had a complete meltdown that resulted in my husband handing me a xanax and chamomile tea and telling me to go to bed.

I tackled it again after my short work week. If the left side looks better, that's because I have it pinned up here.  I ended up taking a good inch and a half in pinning it, went over it with a triple zigzag stitch and clear elastic for stability (and added it to the shoulders), then trimmed excess fabric. Carefully.  Hooray! It Worked!

To be honest, all I did for finishing the edges was turn it under twice and use a tiny zigzag.  Facings on this stuff? NOT HAPPENING. Also, finding matching thread was almost impossible, but I ended up going with dark red on the serger and a dark purple in my Mom's Viking. I really wish my Brother had been operational at this point, its a lot happier to work on knits.

Oh right, the after on dealing with Saggy Boob.

One day, I'll get new floors. *sighs*

I didn't bother to hem it, it really didn't need it in this case.  And of course, I still haven't gotten more photos of me in it.  Here's a slightly different phone photo than the one I posted before.

This are serious face, I are serious Time Lord. I have evil eyebrows, too.  

Alright then. I hope that was in some way enlightening. Also, this did show me that, other than the rounded shoulders, my doppleganger is pretty close to my proportions and reliable for early fitting.

Tim Gunn's New Book

‎"I love the word "fashion."That's why I'm using it in the title of this book. Fashion is about change and about creating clothes within a historical context. To me, dissmissing fashion as silly or unimportant seems like a denial of history and frequently a show of sexism - as if something that's traditionally a concern of women isn't valid as a field of academic inquiry." - Tim Gunn in "Fashion Bible"

I just bought this in the kindle version and I'm still in the introduction. And I'm in love with it. If you haven't yet, GET THIS BOOK!  I can already tell it will be amazing. Also, he touches on a subject which I recently read an essay on about 19th century feminism and fashion and how they are linked.  Expect this to be a blog post soon. In the mean time, read a book!

Sewing ADD

Yeah... its kinda like that.

Heads Up Fashion

source

You know, I've read a few things about Diane von Furstenberg lately that make me like her as a person. And I usually like at least one or two of her pieces, but the spring line pushed my nerd button because she featured none other than Google Glass, the heads up display glasses right out of science fiction.

Really, it was pure ingeniousness on her part.  Forbes has a great article on the collaboration that you can read in full here. But the most exciting part is this:

Apparently she and Brin met at a conference this summer and figured they should push fashion and tech further into the future. Indeed, DVF clothing is strongly feminine, always refined, and the models who wore the glasses in pink and white versions pulled it off with aplomb. (Some wore glasses that recorded the whole show, and the footage will be made into a short film available at www.google.com+DVF on Thursday.)

You can watch the show from the model's perspective. HOW FREAKIN' COOL IS THAT??

The Accidental Dior Dart

Source

I don't know how many of you follow Patter~Scissors~Cloth, but you totally should. There is a wealth of information on her blog, including the Ready To Wear Tailoring series, which is when the project I am working on now started. Like... eons ago. So lets do a memory refresh shall we?

Remember this cropped jacket/bolero thing I was going to do for the RTW tailoring? Well, while searching through my, now rearranged, boxes I came across the muslin I had started way back when. And since I'd been thinking about how badly my wardrobe was lacking in jackets I also thought "hey... I should finish this!". And suddenly all the things I've been practicing and reading are starting to come together, like such:

Uh,wait, how did that get in there? That's not my jacket!  It is, however, the kittens up for adoption right now.  You know you want to! LOOK AT TEH CUTE! Anyway, moving along.

Here we go!  This is after I did a FBA on an armhole princess seam. Its better than not fitting (no photo of original), but uh... messy. So I undid the right side and started repinning to get the right lines.  And that's when I discovered I really needed a dart. So I pinned and marked and this is what it looks like from the front now. At first I though the princess seam dart would be a dead dart, but nope, its staying. Sorry its a bit blurry...

Also... I needed a dead dart to prevent gaping. Look how much better that is!

Oh, yeah, the back gape in the armhole. That goes away when I put it on with shoulder pads because I have rounded shoulders.  A feature that was hard for me to translate when padding out the dress form. My 70's dress, however, confirmed that in everything else its a pretty darn good replica.  Wrinkles are from the thing being in a box for over a year.

Overall, I'm pleased as punch, though I do need a bit more width in the back, which I think I can do just by adding 1/4 inch to the center back seam, though I'm trying to determine how to do that without expanding the neckline. Suggestions?

Also, I've decided on the Simplicity trousers for my first TNT pattern in that respect. I have enough of the fabric to do a matching bolero/trouser set which would be awesomely obnoxious, IMHO.

One Year Later

I still miss her.  Every day I have some moment that I think about her, want to share something with her, and realize that I can't anymore. I remembered a few photos I had found of her when she was young and scanned them here.  One is a Christmas photo in a green dress she made. That raised eyebrow? Yeah, that eyebrow would send me scampering when I knew I was in trouble. You did not mess with "The Look". The other photo, I'm not sure what it was for, possibly for a theater production, but it is so ethereal it needed sharing. Even this young her eyes held so much.

Dragon*con ended up being too hard for me emotionally. I tried, I did, but I couldn't really hold it together, even on the day the kids were with me.  I'm not sure what I'm going to do in the future now because every year these two events will coincide.

That said, the kids had a blast the one day they were with us. So many people loved Simon's costume, he definitely stole the show.  For that, at least, I felt appreciated because so many said "You are lucky to have such a talented Mom".

As for my River Song dress, well I didn't get any more photos.  And there is quite a few other things I've been working on that I haven't talked about at all here. There is so much I want to do, and share, in order to spread my love of sewing and creating with others. Things that I know would have made Mom proud. So all that said, I will do my hair and makeup and attempt to get more photos of the dress and other projects, since I'm off the rest of the week. One of the things that should help photos in the future is getting my backdrop/curtains setup.

I hope everyone will stick around for the fun to come. Much love to you all!

Hello Sweetie

So here is a sneak peak at my dress. I ended up using an entirely different pair of shoes (Seychelles I'd been drooling over and saving  pennies for that went on sale like... 87% off!!).  The fabric was a lovely reciprocal gift from Miss Oona. I'm off to D*CON the rest of the weekend and may be updating leh facebook page. Other than that... SPOILERS!