I’m no Pam Erny when it comes to sewing shirts but a sewing goal for next year is improving my shirtmaking  skills, especially collar points and the precision pattern matching required by stripes and plaids.  I also just generally need some new shirts!   This project has been on my radar for a while and after Vogue [...]]]>

Vogue 8747

I’m no Pam Erny when it comes to sewing shirts but a sewing goal for next year is improving my shirtmaking  skills, especially collar points and the precision pattern matching required by stripes and plaids.  I also just generally need some new shirts!   This project has been on my radar for a while and after Vogue released 8747 I found the pattern I want to use.  It has a more feminine take on a tailored shirt; the princess seams, gently curved placket and sleeve/collar variations are exactly what I’ve been looking for.  All good news right?  I can just get going on cranking out new shirts right?  Well not exactly because Vogue slopers a HUGE on me regardless of the style.  After a zillions adjustments, two  muslins and fitting help from Ann this pattern was finally in a usable state.  Here’s a breakdown of what I had to do:

Petite Sizing

Below is the side pattern piece showing the various slash-spread adjustments with the original pattern piece laid on top. I have a very short waist, only 15 inches, and very narrow shoulders so generally for tops I start with a size 12 and go from there as shown in the 1st photo on the left below.  Even with a size 12 Vogue’s back waist is 16.5  inches so  this always my first adjustment  This pattern has A-B-C-D cup sizing and I started with a 12 C-cup.

Uneven Shoulders

Due to a slight case of scoliosis my left shoulder is about 3/8 if an inch higher than my right. The side bodice piece in the photo 2nd from the left illustrates the raised armysce and the shoulder peice on this side was also raised.  Nancy Zieman’s pivot method is the easiest way to do this type of shoulder adjustment.

The original pattern and the adjusted version after the first round of changes

2nd round of changes, the right and left sides compared

Bust length

Single layer layout with labels marking the right and wrong sides

Vogue always has (for me anyway) a lot of extra length from the front shoulder to the bust point and youcvan see the various tucks I made to take out extra volume.  There is no real science to this, the basic idea is to make a slit, open it up, overlap the adjustment and then taper to the  nearest seam.   The slash-and-spread method works for me a bit better than just tracing to the next largest size from waist to hip for example.    I have no idea why this works, I suspect it’s because it keeps the scale of the pattern true to the original sloper?  But really  I have no clue.

Fabric

This is a blue and white Italian shirt fabric from Gorgeous Fabrics and it’s soooo beautiful!  It sews like a dream.  I don’t know what the weave is exactly, it’s some kind of complex cross between a twill and broadcloth.     The buttons are also from Pam, these are her Classic Cream Pearl shirt buttons.  Very beautiful and classy.  For interfacing I used, for the first time,  Pam’s new Pro-Woven Shirt Crisp and this is a great product.  It really produces a professional base for collars and cuffs.  Fusing interfacing is a task where I have a bad tendency to cheat by not following directions however, with this product it’s really necessary to rigorously follow Pam’s precise and thorough instructions.  I also let each piece cool before I sewed it and that made a big difference as well.  This interfacing will feel rather stiff when the shirt is finished, however, after one washing it softens up quite a bit and produces that beautiful firm but pliable hand we know from RTW shirts.  Really Pro-Woven Shirt Crisp  is the only interfacing  worth using for tailored shirts in my opinion.

Today I’ll finish up another shirt from this pattern, its in a brown-blue stripe with french cuffs and contrast details that uses up remnants from this blue fabric.

The video finally arrived from ADA Providence!  I wish this was in High Def but competition videos tend to be shot in an older format so they’ll play on virtually any DVD player.  From start to finish it took me about six weeks to make all 56 costumes.   The inspiration was a Salwar [...]]]>

The video finally arrived from ADA Providence!  I wish this was in High Def but competition videos tend to be shot in an older format so they’ll play on virtually any DVD player.  From start to finish it took me about six weeks to make all 56 costumes.   The inspiration was a Salwar Kameez for the girls and Kurta for the guys, both are South Asian styles worn in that part of the world by millions of people every day.    To get started with this project I had a meeting in January with Rennie Gold and Kellie Grant  to get a sense of what they were  thinking  for a costume.  Rennie is the director and owner of The Gold School and Kellie is on the faculty.   Rennie choreographed “Bollywood Jam”.   He  had a thick catalog of dance costumes and while there were a few South Asian styles available  they were interpretations of formal clothes such as Nehru jackets or were variants on sari, such as a choli (the blouse worn under a sari) paired with loose pants.    All of these were out because two years ago another dance school did a big Bollywood production routine that used those types of clothing styles.  Plus, the Level 3 dancers are under the age of 13 and, unlike many other dance schools, Rennie will not allow young girls to wear costumes that are not age appropriate.  Plus the colors weren’t really what he was looking for either.  He used my Pantone deck to chose a color palette and I did web research to come up with ideas.

Rennie’s final choice was a turquoise blue for Level 1 (the oldest kids, age 13 and up),  a lime green for Level 2 (ages 11 – 13) and a bright yellow for Level 3 (ages 8 – 13).  He left the color choice for the pants up to me and that was  an interesting challenge.  It had to be dark color because all of the dancers wear the same tap shoe: black leather Capezio G100′s that cost $65 a pair.   Asking them to buy new tap shoes for one routine was out of the question.  The pants color also had to coordinate with the three tunic colors.  Lucky for me research revealed that a dark merlot wine color is used in real South Asian clothing and it looked great with the tunic colors.

Design Sources

The Girls: Salwar Kameez is a garment for women and girls made from woven fabrics; the basic design is a loose tunic with side slits, a pair of  tapered pants fairly tight through the leg that scrunch at the ankle plus a scarf or shawl in a chiffon.  The scarf and pants are often the same color and contrast with the tunic.  It can be a day or evening garment depending on the fabric.  Even though the design is simple the fabrics range from plain woven gauze to sari-type fabrics in bright saturated colors with beautiful metallic designs woven through and embellished with elaborate trim.    The tunic can be sleeveless, short sleeved or long sleeved and  a v-neck is most common.

The Guys: a Kurta is a tunic worn by men and boys, very loose, and the only embellishment is at the neckline.  It’s also made from a woven fabric and the pants can be matching or not.

Fabric: This was an even bigger challenge!  My first choice was sari fabric for the tunics and a knit for the pants.  Sari is widely available on Ebay in poly-cotton and I found a source that had the three colors I needed.  Each sari had a stunning jacquard clover motif woven through with a  silver jacquard border.  One sari is 7 yards long and I found a source for about $15 per sari and I could get several tunics out of each one with a cross grain layout.   I ordered one to make a prototype, however, the fabric was really really sheer and it needed a lining, which was totally out of the question for 56 costumes.   So I had to go with a knit for the tunics as well and Spandex House came ot rescue; they sell Milliskin which is a 4-way stretch knit (80% nylon, 20% Spandex)  and it comes in 40 colors.  It’s meant for dance/gymnastic costumes and work-out clothing.  Spandex House has the matte finish version which was perfect.   Several of the girls told me they found the leggings to be really comfortable,  I think that’s due to te high Spandex count.  It’s a rather heavy drapey fabric like Slinky but thankfully it doesn’t “grow” like Slinky.  A raw edge on Milliskin will not run or ravel and not having to hem sleeves and pant legs was a real time saver.

Trim: the move away from sari fabric to a plain knit meant I had to look for trim and it had to be at a great price.  Trim is always more expensive than fabric and my price limit was $75 per costume.  Ideally I wanted to find a trim in three different colors – lo and behold Cheep Trims had metallic fan braid in yellow gold, light gold and silver at a great price point:  20 yards for $12 and I easily met the minimum order requirements.

This was the silouette we wanted

Patterns: Initially, New Look 6086 was exactly what I was looking for in terms of a Salwar style tunic.  A short sleeve was perfect because I didn’t want to worry about sleeve length.  The scarf was eliminated because there is partnering in this routine.  However, once I  switched to a knit for the tops I wanted to look for a simpler design without darts to cut down on construction time.  Jalie 2805 (the t-shirt pattern) was the final choice and I lengthened each pattern into a short tunic shape with side slits.  The end result is much more body conscious than a real Salwar and more appropriate for  a dance routine.  In tap routines the judges need to see every dancers legs and feet for scoring.  Jalie 2920 was used for the leggings and I extended the length by 6 inches to get the ankle scrunch.  The guys costumes use Simplicity 9900, a pajama pattern.  A few minor adjustments were  made; a v-neck was added and and the Henley front  and center seamwas eliminated.  Oddly the younger boys costumes  fit them perfectly but the older guys costumes were HUGE even though I made them in the correct sizes.  After the try-on each one had to be cut in two inches on each side for both the pants and the tunic.  Now these guys are dancers and all in amazing condition nonetheless the sloper on this pattner is  so huge I recommend going down a size for any guy if you decide to use it.

Production

Production sewing was the biggest challenge.  There are three sets of dancers in this routine, both guys and girls,a nd the age range is from age 9 to 18.  In the end it worked out to 56 costumes in 12 sizes across four colors.  Yes – I made 112 pieces of clothing! The school gave me basic measurements for the girls (bust, waist, hips) and I took measurements for the 7 older guys (chest, waist, back length, waist to floor from the side).  I winged it on the younger boys because they are all about the same height & size this year and a boys medium worked for the three of them.   In the end I traced off and altered patterns in 12 sizes forhte girls and 3 sizes for the guys.  That was a ton of work but I have them saved so I can use them again.

The costumes had to be delivered a full week before the first competition so Rennie could do rehearsals and a run  through prior to the competition.  My biggest fear was handing them out and discovering that one (or more!) dancers would not have a costume when they needed to wear them that weekend.  I came up with this production plan to prevent that:

• Each dancers name, gender, measurements, size for each piece and dance level was put on a 3 x 5 index card
• The girls costumes were made first, then the guys.
• I  sorted the cards and made a separate list on a legal pad of how many pieces were needed of each size in each color.  For cutting the list was grouped by size, costume color  then by dance level.  Bodices were cut first, then sleeves.
• all of the pieces for each garment were rolled together and placed in a wire laundry basket to the right of my serger.  As I finished each garment I dropped each one into another laundry bsaket to my left.
• Trim was added after all the costumes were made.
• As each piece was made  it was checked off from the totals  for that size and each piece was marked with its size on a piece of tape.
• When a color was finished in a size I added the dancers names to the tapes, put each into a ziplock bag and dropped in the 3×5 index card with the name facing out.
• The pants/leggings were sewn and added to each bag in the same manner..

After all the costumes were done I did a double check against the master list of names to make sure each dancer had a costume.  On costume day I did not miss ANYONE!

There were a few glitches during production,the electronics in my serger overloaded and I had to enlist Ann’s help and her industrial serger to finish them up.  She gets a big THANK YOU and a giant hug for being such a solid and supportive friend.  There have also been repairs here and there.  A few kids went through a growth spurt and their costumes were too small based on measurements taken last fall.  Some have been accidentally washed, but hat’s no big deal as I have extra fabric (never wash a dance costume!)   For Nationals next month I’ll whip up spare leggings in a few sizes because if somethigbn needs repair there will be no time for fixing anything while we’re in Boston at the Hynes Convention Center.  One final touch for the girls will be bindi and jewels over their eyebrows.

All in all it was a fun challenge and I got paid for it too!

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Its was a good thing that I did a muslin for this pattern; it required some additions that are pretty common in modern patterns.   First thing:  the fit through the upper bodice and shoulder is really great, however the side seam are virtually straight and not especially flattering.  So two [...]]]>

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Its was a good thing that I did a muslin for this pattern; it required some additions that are pretty common in modern patterns.   First thing:  the fit through the upper bodice and shoulder is really great, however the side seam are virtually straight and not especially flattering.  So two vertical back seams were added and I’ll add raglan shoulder pads.  I generally need shoulder pads in dresses due to being naturally mouse shouldered.  This muslin fabric is a bed sheet that was intended from some long forgotten home dec project.  Another decision was to shelve my first fabric  choice and use it for version 2; I just don’t have the right zipper in my stash.  Ann is heading to NYC in November and she’s kindly offered to find one at Pacific Trim.  I think a dark brown tape with a antique brass pull would look great. with the brown with pink pinstripe stable knit.   I had plenty of stash stuff to use for this version,; a nice heavy stretch polyester, a ring zipper and the contrast facing will add some  interest to all that black.  Might be a bit much to have zipper teeth exposed, a lapped zipper might look better.  Must ponder that.  In the photos you can see  the diagonal drag line from my left shoulder.  The pattern pieces illustrate the required ¼ extra inch.  On a non-raglan sleeve I use Nancy Zieman’s pivot method to raise one shoulder.  And of course this requires a single layout and careful marking when there is no real right-wrong side to the fabric. Oh and here is a link to the Etsy shop where I found this pattern, owned by the net’s funniest sewing blogger Pattern Junkie.

(c) 2010 Helen Howes

A few weeks ago a comment was left on a post about my 1928 Willcox & Gibbs industrial.  Helen Howes, who is a textile artist in the UK, has one very similar to mine and and she asked for a threading diagram.  It’s good to know there [...]]]>

(c) 2010 Helen Howes

A few weeks ago a comment was left on a post about my 1928 Willcox & Gibbs industrial.  Helen Howes, who is a textile artist in the UK, has one very similar to mine and and she asked for a threading diagram.  It’s good to know there is is at least one more early 20th century W&G industrial out there still out there!  Helen has a fascinating website and her art quilts are very beautiful.  She also teaches, sells patterns and kits and sells old machine parts.  One idea I really like is her Tiger quilt.  This piece was created to showcase a new edition of fat quarters. The  squares are  cut, layered in pairs,  randomly cut again and reassembled into whatever looks pleasing.   Another great thing about the Tiger quilt is there are no wasted cuts of fabric because the extra pieces are used for the binding.  The spontaneous nature of the piecing is very appealing.  Here’s a link to a PDF of the instructions.  I  think the last quilt I made was for my daughter’s American Girl dolls so I’m definitely planning to make one of these, maybe a small one as sewing room decor.

This weekend was one of those where a million little things eat up the whole day, such as a homework project that involved making a movie for health class, of all things.  Why can’t these kids write a paper?  I guess watching a movie is easier to grade, God [...]]]>

(c) 2010 Gorgeous Fabrics

This weekend was one of those where a million little things eat up the whole day, such as a homework project that involved making a movie for health class, of all things.  Why can’t these kids write a paper?  I guess watching a movie is easier to grade, God forbid the teacher should take the time to correct a paper      So naturally getting the thing onto a DVD took up a couple of hours, and this had to be accomplished while John and I were canning veggies (end of summer gardening bounty) and he was getting ready for a business trip.  But I did squeeze in one small project. Over on Gorgeous Fabrics, Ann has a terrific faux Hermes scarf print panel, so I bought two of them and hemmed each as scarves.   The fabric is polyester and while I did make a pathetic attempt at a hand rolled hem truthfully a narrow machine rolled hem looks better because the poly yarns are bulkier than the equivalent would be in genuine silk.  I love the colors and motifs so I’m not gonna feel downmarket that its synthetic and not real silk.  Most of these scarf tie ideas should look familiar.  If you would like me to do a tutorial  any of them just let me know, I can make that another blog post.  I may save the second scarf to give as a gift or use it as a bag lining.

Simple drape. good for t-shirts

Kerchief style

Gathered drape, good for coats

Ascot Style, good for open shirts

Square Knot, with motif on the knot

Turtleneck, good for close necklines

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Lately I’ve been trolling vintage pattern web sites, mostly because it’s just so much fun and there is serious style out there that still looks good today.  This weekend on Patterns From The Past I found Simplicity 6284 that I actually wore! (you need to scroll down the page to find [...]]]>

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Lately I’ve been trolling vintage pattern web sites, mostly because it’s just so much fun and there is serious style out there that still looks good today.  This weekend on Patterns From The Past I found Simplicity 6284 that I actually wore! (you need to scroll down the page to find it, this  is not a robust web site) My mother made me the jacket and vest and I wore it for my senior class photo.   The fabric may actually be silk taffeta; I did a burn test today and got that characteristic smell and soft black ash that silk makes.  I think the collar fabric is a cotton or rayon matte shantung.  Both fabrics are vintage and came from my grandmother’s stash, and the buttons are mother of pearl.    Mom (who posts comments here as PVE) matched up the plaid pretty well I’d say so she gets a big hug fromm me!  I <3 YOU MOM!  The inside is not lined except for the sleeves, and she clean finished the seams with an overlock stitch.  This is not a serged stitch however, this jacket made  was more than a decade before before  sergers were available to home sewers.   At the time straight stitch machines did a approximation of  a true overlock stitch.   The facings are bound with black lace and the sleeves are lined with silver polyester satin.  The rest of my outfit was a pair of RTW black satin jeans and black platform shoes with a 3 inch heel.   I think the jeans had a rhinestone applique on the back too. It was  a killer 70′s look lemme tell you!

So if you know a young sewer who loves that Steampunk look trust me this is the pattern for her.

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Miss Cranky Pants is banished, this skirt managed to exorcise her!    Recent projects by Gigi and Bunny inspired me to dig through my stash of heirloom trims and use them up. I did a lot of heirloom sewing when my daughters were young, but they outgrew those styles long [...]]]>

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Miss Cranky Pants is banished, this skirt managed to exorcise her!    Recent projects by Gigi and Bunny inspired me to dig through my stash of heirloom trims and use them up. I did a lot of heirloom sewing when my daughters were young, but they outgrew those styles long ago and these pretty trims have been languishing for years.   Sewing heirloom its easy and predictable like quilting,  but wearing heirloom styles can be dicey in a modern context.  It’s actually rather tricky to come up  with heirloom garments that don’t look like reenactment clothing or Sunday best;  I wanted something I can wear to work in the summer.  Plus for me personally, as much as I love the look, a full-on Luxe Boho/Shabby Chic style looks silly on me .

For heirloom to work for me I need the trims need to be discrete and the pattern itself has to be more sporty/tailored than frilly.   McCall’s 5591 has those qualities and its a summer skirt: flattering, easy to wear and a good base for embellishment.  I made View A and eliminated the pockets.  The yellow band at the hem on the pattern envelope is a piece of fabric folded in half with the fold forming the hem.  That’s a separate pattern piece, so I just added that same amount of length onto the skirt pieces.  The dotted Swiss is semi-sheetr so I added a n underskirt made from vintage eyelet that belonged to my grandmother.  The embroidered dotted Swiss is from Gorgeous Fabrics (natch) and its cut in single layer layout so I could match up the embroidery at the side seams.

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The trims are white tatting and French Val lace, and I made the lining a bit longer than the  skirt to let the underskirt/lining peek out.  The lining hangs free and the contoured waistband holds both the underskirt and the dotted Swiss.   This was a little tricky because the center back seam of the underskirt was the last to be closed so I could finish the inside of the back zipper with hand fell stitching.  The hems are done with a 1/8 inch narrow hemmer, and I have to say my vintage Wilcox & Gibbs hemmer foot works much better than any hammer foot on my domestic machines.  I have no idea why this is but I love using it!   After the skirt and underskirts were narrow hemmed the tatting and lace was attached with a narrow zig-zag.  The tatting is butted up against the hemmed edge and in the zig zag the needle sweeps over the edge of the tatting to bind it to the hem.

And the cameo?  I wanted to to see if I could style the skirt to show off the pretty underskirt.  It’s a vintage piece my mother gave me and I really can’t wear it on the skirt without it being damaged but maybe I can find fabric flower or a nice vintage costume pin instead.

The next question is:  what to wear with it? Maybe New Look 6755.