CoudreMODE » Ritual Cloth

Namaste

coudremode — Sun, 11 Sep 2011 08:46:09 +0000

The Dalai Lama, Facebook status update , September 11, 2011 at 4:58am

Today, as we mark the tenth anniversary of the September 11th 2001 attacks on New York and Washington DC, let us remember all the innocent lives lost and ponder the continuing impact of that tragic day. September 11th reminds us of the horror we human beings can unleash on ourselves when we allow our human intelligence and powerful technology to be overtaken by hatred.

We need to learn from our painful memories of September 11th and become more aware of the destructive consequences that arise when we give in to feelings of hatred. This tragedy in particular has reinforced my belief that fostering a spirit of peaceful co-existence and mutual understanding among the world’s peoples and faith traditions is an urgent matter of importance to us all. We must therefore make every effort to ensure that our various faith traditions contribute to build a more caring, peaceful world.

The Dalai Lama

September 9, 2011

Originally published in the Washington Post on September 10, 2011.

A Dress For Lily

coudremode — Sat, 30 Jul 2011 22:13:48 +0000

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Wow it’s been quite a while since I’ve done baby sewing! This dress is for Lily, my first cousin three times removed; her grandmother is my mother’s cousin. She’s 18 months old and is the flower girl in her uncle’s wedding. He is my first cousin twice removed, his mother is Lily’s grandmother. The family ties come full circle because Lily’s grandmother, my mother’s cousin, was the flower girl at my parent’s wedding in 1957.

The pattern is Butterick 5458 in a size 2; I made a few alterations. I wasn’t crazy about the rounded neckline so I made it a more elegant bateau shape. The back zipper was eliminated and replaced with a simple slit closed with a buttonloop. The button is vintage; its from my grandmother’s stash and I added a pearl in the center to dress it up a bit. The pattern has a back zipper however I think a zipper on a toddler dress is just weird. The wedding is in North Carolina next month and the dress is fully lined in batiste so she won’t need to wear a slip because it will be pretty hot. The fashion fabric is Kaufman seersucker from Fabric.com and this is a beautiful fabric! I may need to order a few more yards – I need new summer shirts! If you’re doing vintage pattern sewing this seersucker is the real thing and it’s a joy to sew. The hem of the lining and her bib are trimmed in ecru Cluny lace from my grandmother’s stash. Lily’s mother will love the family ties, my late grandmother is Lily’s great-great aunt. I also made her a diaper cover because the heirloom effect is kind of ruined with a modern disposable diaper. Fortunately I haven’t thrown out all of my baby patterns and I was able to draft the diaper cover from a romper in OOP Simplicity 5115. The bib was a last minute idea. A few years ago I made a silk organza christening gown for a friend and it ended up with a big formula stain on it and I don’t want Lily’s Mom to spend the whole wedding fretting over this dress. Now Lily can wear her matching bib at dinner and have a piece of wedding cake with no worries. I drafted a pattern for the bib from the dress bodice and it lined with batiste as well. The silk ribbon ties are a remnant from my stash. The sash is a good quality polyester organza from Jo-Ann’s if you can believe it!

Overall this was a very relaxing project it was perfect for summer; the finishing and details were most of the work. When my daughters were little I made lots of heirloom garments for them and it was nice to stroll down memory lane.

Click for a larger viewlane.

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Something Old, Something New

coudremode — Sat, 02 Oct 2010 18:37:04 +0000

January 19, 1957

October 2, 1993

My parents, her brother and SIL and my grandparents

Happy Anniversary Honey!

Today is our 17th wedding anniversary and the “something old” is my wedding gown, which was also mother’s. My Grandmother made it for her and it was always my first choice for a wedding gown. It’s not a fancy dress and is not even silk, just a rayon ivory jacquard. Not sure where the pattern came from. The skirt has a flounce that meets part way in the front, kind of like the skirts on these dresses. I didn’t need to alter it all really, although as you can see I did change the neckline and added beading on the upper bodice. The extra fabric went into my headpiece. I also had my dressmaker add a tiny pocket hidden in the flounce seam so I could carry a lipstick. Don’t know if either of my daughters will want to carry on the tradition and that’s okay, they may be more the Trash the Dress types anyway! Even if I make gowns for both of them and they trash ‘em I;m cool - a bride can do whatever she wants with her gown in my opinion!

Old Cape Cod

coudremode — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 19:35:24 +0000

Can you find my mistake?

This Patti Page song was in my mind while I was making this shirt. Fabric invokes memory and as soon as I saw this patchwork on Gorgeous Fabrics I knew I had to have it; when I was kid in California I had a madras shirt that I loved so much I wore it until it fell apart and it was a hand-me-down to begin with. It was sooooo soft and light….and when this patchwork arrived from Gorgeous Fabrics I was instantly transported back to Oceanside CA. Madras is also a beloved summer fabric in New England going way back. I remember not so long ago summer clothes were regional; everything now seems so generically tropical. I like palm trees as much as the next person but I also love the New England summer fashions that were sold and made here by local stores before Tommy Hilfiger and Ralph Lauren co-opted the look and made it boringly mainstream.

As much as I love it this fabric it posed some interesting challenges:

Prewash – I threw a Color Catcher® into the pre-wash and sureee enough it came out really dark in both this colorway and the green one, so I recommend using one.

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Design and pattern changes - simple is better for any garment made with this fabric. Ann made an A-line skirt in the pink patchwork colorway, and if you want to make a shirt in one of these patchworks the design I used is about as complicated you can go in terms of the pattern. Initially I was going to use McCall’s 6035 View D as is, but this patchwork is busy and the intersecting thicknesses would be challenging with princess seams. Also details like the collar and stand don’t lend themselves to being made from patchwork due the seaming in the fabric, so I made a design change and used a nice white cotton shirting (also from Gorgeous Fabrics) from my stash. If you don’t like the idea of a contrast collar a collarless style such as Kwik Sew 3200 is an alternative. I thought the vertical seams from Butterick 4609 were a better idea, but I wanted the shirred sleeve from 6035. A problem emerged in that the armscye between 6035 and 4609 is quite different. 6035 has the high armhole that is fashionable right now and I wanted that; 4609 is an older pattern and has a lowered armhole. So I traced off both patterns, cut off the seam allowances and laid one over the other matching up at center front. Then I traced the vertical darts from Butterrick onto McCall’s, made flat pattern adjustments for my figure based on my measurements and whipped up a muslin. After a few more adjustments to the paper pattern I made the shirt.

Layout – you will need to eyeball the grain because these patchworks have no grain, no selvage and you can’t tear a grain line either due to the patchwork seaming. Keep your style simple and use a single layer layout.

Construction - There is a fusible interfacing under the placket and it works with this application because it’s just a narrow strip. Ann used silk organza and didn’t recommend a fusible for a skirt facing and I agree, with this fabric you can’t really used a fusible for anything other than a shirt placket.

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Buttons & Buttonholes – The creamy shell buttons are vintage and came from my stash. One thing I have learned from Pam is to never, ever rely on the pattern instructions for buttonhole placement! They always tell you to have them too far from the finished edge! Buttonhole placement is a sure clue to a garment being home sewn – honestly just go onto the sewing forums and take a look: 99% of sewers place them too far from the edge or they are horizontal when they should be vertical. I did double buttons to just tone down the madras a bit. The buttonholes are done with a Singer Buttonholer I have set up permanently. I’m not crazy about the ties made from the collar fabric, I’ll replace them with 3/8 twill tape because I want them drapier. I may add a center line of hand topstitching in blue floss (like this M&J Trim ribbon) to transition the sleeve detail to the fashion fabric.

One last thing: the muslin had more ease than the finished shirt, and again I think this is because the patchwork seams and lack of a true grain affects the wearing ease. So for a shirt give yourself a tad more ease (1/4 to 3/8 inch) than you normally would to account for what is lost due to the nature of this patchwork fabric.

This week we had a day with temps in the high 80′s; I wore this shirt to work and loved it! It was a great transition from air conditioning to the warm outdoors. Not sure what I’ll do with the green colorway; I’m thinking a casual hoodie jacket might be fun.

Next up is a pair of Hot Patterns Marrakesh Pants in a white linen/cotton to wear with this shirt.

Freedom

coudremode — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 00:43:59 +0000

Cidell asked me what I thought of Aretha’s hat. Well this is why it was such a stunning choice. Now just imagine that you are in the audience at this momentous occasion. Imagine what those huge (12mm) Swarovski stones look like in the bright winter sun. Imagine being so far away that you can’t actually see her, but you can hear that voice and the rhinestones are flashing in your eyes while she’s singing. You cry because they are so bright and it hurts but also because of the emotion in the moment. Aretha was the Statute of Liberty, her brilliant hat was her crown and the microphone was her torch.

Green Gloves

coudremode — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 00:55:48 +0000

Worn with a delicate light green guipure wool lace coat and matching dress by Isabel Toleldo. Some news sources have reported that Michelle’s outfit was yellow, but I think its really a yellow green; and besides who would wear green gloves with a yellow lace coat? Isabel Toledo is one of my favorite designers, and this ensemble is different for her, she generally has that sharp Spanish style of tailoring, this coat and dress being softer than her usual work; this looks almost Chanelish. Given the bitter cold on the east coast right now, the First Lady stayed warm with a coordinating cashmere scarf and a cardigan with a lovely diamante collar. Sublime.

The Ghost of Christmas Past

coudremode — Tue, 25 Dec 2007 21:15:52 +0000

My mother sent me these vintage needle booklets for Christmas – aren’t they wonderful? She said in her note that she found them at a “second hand sale” and as soon as I opened them I felt an immediate and powerful connection to the sewist who used them.

My favorite tools are always the ones I make myself. I made the needle book below a few years ago when I was going through a bit of OCD while trying to embroider a proper bullion rose.

The “cover” is filled with two pieces of plastic canvas zigzagged round the edges, then trimmed. I added flannel pages and stitched a center “binding” between the pieces of plastic canvas. I have a collection of vintage needles I that like to use for embroidery and hand sewing, so I store them in this booklet.

I have this fantasy that the woman who made the vintage needle books was just as pleased as I was when she finished hers. The fronts and back are two colors of wool felt, and the pages are white flannel. The butterfly is missing one antenna, but the simple silk floss embellishment is still bright. The flower basket is embellished with posies stitched from french knots and lazy daisy stitches for leaves. The handle of the basket folds down to show the needles. Based on the shapes and colors I’d say both date from the late 1930′s to mid 1940′s. I love the imagery from this era because it reminds me of my grandmother and my great aunts.

I doubt I’ll take the needles out – I’d rather leave them just as they are, as they were, the last time the unkown maker touched them. A sewing moment frozen in time; a tangible link to the past and a respite from modern life.

Carnivale of the Couture #21 – Ritual Cloth

coudremode — Thu, 08 Jun 2006 19:29:00 +0000

by Diva Phyllis

For many of us fashion bloggers, the latest styles and upcoming trends are an exciting and endless source of interest. And yet for all its supposed superficiality, the meaning of fashion, and our attachment to it, goes much deeper than mere trends or seasonal change. Each of us has memories, sometimes tender, sometimes not, of particular garments or accessories that evoke strong feelings and attachments. So this weeks Carnivale of the Couture topic is “Ritual Cloth” – tell us about your special item, the story behind it and why it transcends mere fashion for you.

It can be that special pair of super fantastic shoes that filled you with such confidence that you aced a much desired job interview. It can be that vintage Hermes scarf that your grandmother owned and has such meaning that you just couldn’t cut it up and the Project Runway judges slammed you for it. It can be the dress you made in 24 hours for the funeral of a beloved family member. It can be a Garfield tie your father wore (Father’s Day is this Sunday, June 18th – don’t forget Dad and the Significant Men in
your life!)

We want to hear about any fashion item with a history, a story or a pedigree and why it means something to you. Send your story to thesewingdivas@hotmail.com and on Friday, June 16th, we will share the most fascinating responses. Let the fashion memoirs begin!