The Fashion Show

Is it just me, or did Project Runway go seriously downhill this year? The designers were fine (although Gretchen never did make anything I found interesting), but the hour and a half length just did not work. They filled the extra space with more personal drama (because that's apparently what sells for reality TV), and it felt like they showed even less of the clothes than with the old hour format. Part of what I always liked about Project Runway was the focus on the designs and the competition and not on crazy people. Not that some of the best designers aren't a bit crazy, but if I just wanted to watch crazy people, I'd go for a Real Housewives or Real World.

So, enough with the complaining about a show that ended two months ago. Last night I finally watched "The Fashion Show," which is Bravo's attempted replacement now that they lost Project Runway to Lifetime. And now I'm hooked. It's a show about designing clothes that actually shows you the clothes being designed. What a novelty!

So far (two episodes in, not sure if it changes later), they've just had group challenges, which means the camera time can be split more evenly among the designs. This way, you don't automatically know who's going to be safe because they never showed up on camera during the episode. It also means that the drama between the designers will actually be related to the designs, since they have to collaborate.

We'll see how the rest of the season goes, but right now, I think I've found my new favorite design show.

Drafting a button front fly

I'm making the fiance a pair of flannel-backed satin* jammies so that hopefully he can roll over in bed and slide under the sheets instead of dragging them with him. Being that they are going to be satin jammies, he wanted to make sure they don't look like girl's clothes**, so he wants a fly. A fake fly would be fine, because it's just for looks and not function, but I think a real fly will actually be easier than a fake one.

* I have to admit, this fabric is a point for Joann. As much as I complain about their lack of interesting fabric, this stuff is pretty cool and I couldn't find it anywhere else online.

** Why is it that it's totally kosher for women to wear men's clothes, but not vice-versa? I guess this is one place where we have the better side of enforced gender roles, for what that's worth.

Since the pattern I'm using doesn't have a fly (or pockets, for that matter, but those are easy), I'm trying to draft one from a pair of jammies that he already has. After extensive measuring, here's what I came up with:

Gotta be careful to remember that the pattern as is has seam allowances, and to add seam/fold allowances! So all seemed well until I tried to trace my new pattern onto the old pattern:

Uh oh. The crotch seam curves before the end of my fly. Some of that is ok because I can just straighten the top of the seam, and it'll get taken in enough with the elastic waist. But the rest of the curve at the bottom... I'm not entirely sure what to do. The sample jammies are straight all along the fly, easy to tell because of the plaid. So I think I'm going to basically assume I can make the fly straight and even out the crotch seam somehow to fix it. Flying by the seat of my pants here, which is only appropriate.

Making fabric

(via)

Maybe it's because I don't have the time or energy to drive up to San Francisco to fabric shop and am therefore left in the desert of Joann and the occasional Hancock* (fine for quilting cottons, but unfortunately I've learned that quilting cottons are dangerous to sew clothes with). Or maybe it all goes back to the tie-dye and batik classes I took in high school.** At any rate, I'm fascinated by making my own fabric.

* I do actually have the most fabulous silk store on my way home from school, but you can't make everything out of silk, much as I might like to. Besides the expense, silk just doesn't feel like a winter fabric to me.

** Or maybe the need I have to make everything from scratch. To make my own salsa from scratch, I have to not only start with whole tomatoes and peppers etc., but I have to actually grow them. I've been tempted to learn to make cheese so I can make my own pizza from scratch, but then I'd have to start raising cows for milk.

While I usually would just dye fabric to "make" a nice fabric, it's too cold for my staple cottons or silks. And while I probably won't finish this until well into spring, I have a new wintry project planned:

I'm going to attempt to knit some fabric. I read an article in Threads about working with sweater knits, so I'm fairly confident in being able to sew my knitted fabric. The issue is making it. I had a few month knitting fad a year or two ago which ended when I decided I was ready to make a blanket. I cast on the excessively long row, and then never did anything else with it. So I have a ton of this black and white yarn. My knitting skills are nowhere near good enough to actually make a sweater or to do any sort of complicated stitch, but I figure a basic stitch*** will be made more interesting by actually sewing it.

*** Recommended by Leah: the moss stitch. As she says, "of course, it may get cantankerous and bring down your entire locker room, so watch out for that." Oh, Randy.

Hawaii Dress in Hawaii

Lessons learned:

• I have a tendency to overfit, so when I'm actually wearing and sitting around in the dress, it's too tight. I probably do need to do a bit of a FBA to get rid of the gaping at the neckline, while still leaving the proper amount of ease.
• Quilting cottons are wildly inappropriate for a summery dress, especially a Hawaiian style beach dress. Drape and flow are the keys there.

Hem Inspiration

(source)

Brilliant idea!

I was gathering a bunch of Threads magazines that I inherited from a coworker of my dear fiance, and saw a gorgeous hem. I can't find a picture online, but it's basically a hand-picked hem with French knots decorating the stitches on the right side. See, hand-picked hems are nice but it drives me nuts to see the stitches on the right side, even if they are tiny. So this takes a bug and turns in into a feature by making the stitches decorative. Then I remembered the Threads article about beading the stitches on a hand-picked zipper (pic above). So I'm thinking hand-picked hem with beads for the wedding dress. It'll add just a touch of sparkle without going too overboard, I hope.

Glee Sectionals Dress

OMG I need to make this dress. I spent the entire sectionals part of the episode not paying attention to the songs, but trying to figure out how to make the dress.

Another pic that really shows it:


At first I thought it was just a gathered and pleated black organza overlay, but it looks like the fabric is an ombre or border print (sort of, since it's not really a print). So I'm thinking start with a sheer white silk and dye it. Baste at top and bottom, then pull tight and tie it off. This will make sure the dye line is pretty straight. Bag and tie off the ends, then dip dye. I can't decide if it should be an organza or if that's too stiff. Maybe a really thin China silk? A chiffon could work too...

Happy Hanukkah!

Chanukah Sameach!

I know we only give gifts on Hanukkah because it falls near Christmas, and Purim is really the more appropriate holiday for gifts. That doesn't stop me from enjoying my gifts!

My dear fiance gave me spring-loaded Gingher scissors. My first Ginghers! I need to start a new project now so I can use them. His parents also gave me a straight-stitch foot so I can sew more delicate fabrics and not jam up the machine.

I got a surprise present too: I won Victoria's giveaway at Ten Thousand Hours of Sewing! I won the Better Homes and Gardens Pattern Adjustments book, which is excellent because it's the book that motivated me to enter her giveaway:) I keep trying to fit at the end of the process and it always ends up hacked. It'll be great to learn how to do it right.

And now I'm off to warm Hawaii. Hopefully when I get back I'll have a book and a Pendrell pattern waiting for me! The hardest part of the vacation will be deciding if I want to do Tasia's Pendrell sewalong or Sunni's trouser sewalong in January. Maybe both?

Pattern Review:Simplicity 2373

Pattern Description:
Misses' pants, dress or top and jacket. Easy Chic pattern.

Pattern Sizing:
Multisized: H5: 6-8-10-12-14. I made the 14, which was way too big. My measurements match the theoretical "correct" measurements for a 14 pretty much exactly, but it fit like a tent.

Did it look like the photo/drawing on the pattern envelope once you were done sewing with it?
Pretty much, except for the changes I made to the gathers.

Were the instructions easy to follow?
Yup.

What did you particularly like or dislike about the pattern?
Likes: The ribbon topstitched onto the seams, and the shape of the bodice.
Dislikes: The skirt, in particular the gathering. It was largely the fabric I used (a quilting cotton), but I struggled to make it not look like a maternity dress. Also, the seam allowances (or cutting edges of the pattern) at the bodice edges were angled at the top and/or bottom edges, and it was hard to figure out where exactly to line up the edges of the fabric.

Fabric Used:
A quilting cotton from Joann. Oops.

Pattern alterations or any design changes you made:
The straightforward changes were:
- adding a ribbon to the waist
- hand-picking the zipper
- adding a lining instead of using facings
- cutting the strap in half so the pattern would be right-side up in front and back

The more complicated ones:
- Changing the gathers to darts. My fabric was a quilting cotton which would not hang nicely. I tried the gathers from the pattern, but they looked awful. So I tried changing them to pleats, which looked better. Still, the dress poofed unattractively over the stomach and in the back. Finally, I changed the pleats to darts that extend all the way to the hem, which worked out pretty well.
- Taking in the sides for fitting. I didn't do my fitting before I constructed the entire bodice (bad sewer!), so when I finally tried it on, I had to hack the fit. I took it the side seams at the top by a total of two inches, and tapered it to a little past the next seam on down. It's a little lumpy because I didn't do it earlier on when I had more leverage, but it did address the fit issues pretty well.

Would you sew it again? Would you recommend it to others?
Probably not. I generally have issues with empire waistlines, and this was no exception. I might use the ribbon top-stitching idea on another dress. The bodice for this dress was ok but not great, it might work with another skirt but I just don't think I'd take to effort to try.

Conclusion:
The dress came out fine in the end, and the problems I had are probably more due to my poor fabric choice than the pattern. It's a cute idea to edge the seams in ribbon, but I'd probably recommend just topstitching ribbon on top of seams of another pattern.

Progress!

Current progress:


The corset/corsolette for the wedding dress* is almost done. It just needs eyelets and a binding on the top and bottom, and I already made the bias tape out of a silk taffeta. Then I just hope that it fits right! It's hard when you can't try it on until it's done because it doesn't have holes to tie through yet.

*BTW - now I get why people give patterns girls' names - it'd be more fun to talk about the progress on Betty or Joan than to keep saying "the dress." But, how to pick the right name? For a dress this epic it needs a good name.

Originally, I was going to make the whole corset out of silk taffeta. Then I wore a long-line bra to a wedding, one that had a decent amount of stretch, and I still was out of breath by the end of the night. Not exactly what I want for my wedding, so I decided to just make the corset out of china silk so it'd have some more give to it. The problem was, the china silk was just too flimsy and it didn't feel like the corset had any structure to it:


So, in order to not waste the effort that went into that, I decided to line the corset with two layers of china silk. One to be a smooth inner layer, and one to hold the boning and bra cups. So I used the seam allowances to encase the boning and used something resembling a blanket stitch to attach the bra cups:




I put the boning on the inside of the bra cups, so there won't be a ridge that might show through from the boning. The china silk didn't make much of a boundary between this and me, though, so I added a layer of white fleece to pad it:

That was then encased between the two layers of china silk.

I pondered for a while what fabric to use for the corset proper. Originally I had planned taffeta, but it was too stiff, then china silk was too soft, so what would be a good compromise, while still being breathable for the summer? I know, there will be enough layers on this thing that it probably won't be breathable anyways, but I wanted to try. Joann had nothing interesting, but when I went to Thai Silks I found the perfect fabric - silk noil. Better yet, they had a remnant 2/3 yard piece in diamond white - just big enough for the corset except for the facing. They also had a 1/2 yard remnant in natural white that worked fine for the facing, especially because it's encased so you can't see it. Every time I walk in that store I spend 20 minutes pawing through the remnants bin to see what I can get for cheap, so it only seemed appropriate to get the fabric as remnants. Silk noil feels a lot like a nice cotton - a little stiff but not too much, exactly the drape I was looking for.

I attached the china silk lining to the silk noil at the top and bottom and turned it right-side out (it's a pain to slip something with that much boning in it!). Stitched up the side by hand and top stitched on each side of each bone:

It probably would be a bit nicer on the inside if I'd left the inner layer of china silk floating free and only attached the layer with the boning to the silk noil, but with the order I did things in that just wasn't going to happen.

The final piece was an inch wide elastic stitched to the bottom of the bra cups and extending through everything and out either side. I'll attach bra hooks to this in order to make sure the corset comes in tight there and provides enough support. This is probably something I should be able to do by fitting it a bit better, but the boning tends to hold it out from the body a bit, so I figured I'd be safe. Maybe once I tie it up I won't need the elastic, but it's better to have it there in case I do need it.

Left to do:
Cut holes and insert the eyelets: I found the small ones actually smash pretty flat, so they won't add too much bulk in this underlayer. They don't look as good as the bigger grommets, but they look good enough for a lining.
Edge the top and bottom with taffeta silk bias binding: I'm a little nervous about the ends of the bones breaking though the china silk that encases them, since it's such a flimsy fabric. I figure I can effectively make an end casing with the taffeta, and it'll look neat on the inside.
Figure out what to do for a modesty flap: I probably want to do this in diamond white silk charmeuse to match the dress, since it'll show under the dress lacings. I want it to cover the corset lacing and the eyelets and everything. I may just make this as a part of the dress bodice itself, since that'll show exactly where I need to conceal.

Whew, that's a lot I've done, for a part of the dress no one will even see! I'll know it's there though (and feel it!) so I'm happy with it.

Glasses Finished

FInished long ago, but pictures tend to live on my camera and never make it to my computer to be blogged. I'm mostly happy with these. The edge is not quite as crisp as I might like, there are little jaggedeys. On the plus side, these do seem to be dishwasher safe - they've been though multiple times and still look great.

Alice in Wonderland

Well, here it is: me as Alice (The cup says "drink me" if you can't read it). I'm trying to give my best vacant/confused "what's going on here" look. You'd think I'd be better at it with all the experience I have!

I do love the ruffled bolero, although I think it may need to be a bit bigger. Maybe just a stiffer fabric so it'll hold its body better? I'm sorely tempted to make another one up in the silk taffeta that I was originally going to use for the wedding corset. I wonder how well the taffeta will keeps its body if I dye it?

Mad Men Glasses - Rough Draft

I've finished or at least made progress on a bunch of projects this week, but have had no time to actually document the process. Since I really should be documenting my research in time for the abstract deadline next Wednesday instead, here's a quick sneak preview of the Mad Men glasses. I made a glass that was just for fun as a draft, to test out the painting and baking. Glad I did, since I discovered it takes about 5 coats of the Porcelaine paint in order to make it opaque when backlit. Which makes sense, seeing as it's supposed to be used on ceramic, not glass.

At any rate, I used masking tape to block out the areas I wanted to paint:

As you can see, I'm not very good at coloring inside the lines. Peeling the masking tape off the skinny lines without pulling the paint off the glass was tough, but careful use of a razor blade fixed that. The pic up top is after baking and a trip through the dishwasher - I'd say it looks like a success!

Mad Men Whiskey Glasses

Fiance absolutely adores the Mad Men glasses, so he's getting a set for his birthday*, hopefully. I say hopefully because nobody makes them anymore, at least not that I can find. So I'm going to have to attempt to make them. I'm starting with the Dexter glasses (I think) from Crate & Barrel. Then off to Michael's to see if they have a good non-toxic glass paint. Their website lists a number of non-toxic paints that become permanent (and dishwasher safe!) if you just bake them in the oven. Maybe I'll have to get a few spare glasses to play with and test the different paints. I feel an arts & crafts day coming on:)

* Luckily, he doesn't know I have this blog so he shouldn't figure out what he's getting!

Alice in Wonderland

Since I already have a poufy light blue tea-length dress (well, it will be poufy soon), I figured just make an apron/pinafore to complete the look, and then I get a new apron out of the deal. I'm starting with Simplicity 3752, and making a combination of views A and B out of some white cotton-ey stuff I bought a while ago. I'm making to bodice from A, because it's relatively simple and comes closer to the pinafore look with a simple waistband. Then I'm using the skirt from A, but only the center section. I figure I just leave the seam allowance open (who cares about raw edges for Halloween?), and then add the sides later. It may end up a little hackey, but I'm willing to sacrifice quality on a Halloween costume and simple apron. With the way I cook, it'll shortly be so covered in food stains that it really doesn't matter.

Pitcher's Duel

So very excited for Lincecum - Halladay tonight. I scheduled my experiments just so I could be home in time to watch. I just hope Lincecum's blister doesn't affect him.

Of course, it's one of those matchups that can never live up to the hype. Witness Pedro-Roger in the ALCS where Roger left in the third. Not that I mindthe Rocket getting lit up against the Sox. So I guess if it's not meant to be a pitcher's duel tonight, I'll just root for Halladay to be the one getting lit up.

It's hard rooting for the Giants in the postseason. I mean, it's easy, of the teams left, I want them to win, but it feels so weird for the team I'm pulling for to not be the Sox. And I don't really know the Giants players all that well, so I'm constantly asking "who's that guy?" The whole not wearing names on the jersey is all well and good for those who know the players, but not so much for me. Sigh.

At any rate, get out there Timmy and earn yourself a nice post-game smoke. You're back in Cali now, all you can get is a ticket.

Corset Dilemmata*

I tried on the corset muslin for the wedding dress for the first time in months, after I lost about 10 lbs. Now it's a wee bit too big, and I'm not quire sure what to do. When it's tied to the appropriate tightness, the V in the back is totally gone. What I want is something more like the green lines, to mirror the V in the front and just in general go with the whole geometric whatnot.

So do I redo the corset pattern yet again? That sounds like a giant pain, and then what happens if I gain the weight back? Or I can always just tie it looser, which would be good for the breathing and all. The front at the cleavage is a bit too loose then though - maybe I can add an elastic bra-strap type thing?

I am thinking of having the corset and the ombre overlay not actually tie together. This way, I can make the corset, make sure it fits, tie it as tightly as needed, and not pull at the silk overlay. I'm not sure if I'll use the metal grommets or fabric loops on the silk. If I do use grommets, it's probably better to not have the grommets all on top of each other, just for bulk. So maybe I keep the fit as is.

The other question is what fabric to use. For a shaping corset, you want a nice stiff fabric, so it shapes you. Now, I'm pretty happy with my shape, and prefer to be able to breathe over being shaped. I bought some silk taffeta remnants from Thai Silks that I was planning to use, but now I'm thinking those might not be so breathable.** So maybe I just use some Habotai silk? It will definitely breathe, and feel really nice on the skin. Maybe a couple layers for strength? Then I can also encase the bones fully. I just need to remember to starch the silk for body while I'm working with it, and probably pre-wash so it can get the starch rinsed out after. Can I wash it with the bones in? Will spiral steel boning rust or something?


* I do love a word with a fun plural.

** Both in terms of air getting through the fabric and in terms of me being able to breathe.

Herve Leroux/Leger

Normally, the clothes on American's Next Top Model are fun but so very unwearable. The Herve Leroux* dresses from the runway challenge from last week were an exception. Not all were quite wearable for someone without a model's body, but they were all gorgeous, and I think I can take inspiration from them.

I read up a little on him while I was investigating why he changed his name. Apparently, his dresses are all very body shaping - think really pretty spanx. So I don't think that's part of what I'll be emulating. Still, the way he uses color is very like what I'm doing for the wedding dress**, so obviously I love it.

One lesson I have learned though - if I make a dress based on the one pictured here, I will not do it in gray, unless I get some better dyes. Dying shades of gray and having them all keep the same hue is incredibly difficult. I used RIT dye, because it's easy to go buy at Joann, and I mixed up a pretty good silver/gray color. But, when I make it more concentrated, it's too red, and at weaker concentrations, too blue and even too yellow when it's really light. Much easier to stick with a single color like blue. Blue is also more forgiving because different hues of blue look decent together.

More Herve whoever pictures on my tumblr, gardenoffenway.tumblr.com. This is the first time in a while I've been so inspired by so many things from the same designer:)


* Formerly Herve Leger, but he apparently sold off the rights to his own name. Oops.

** Apparently that effect is called "ombre." Now I can be all sophisticated when I describe the design of the wedding dress!

Adventures with Lining

I made Butterick 4789 in a simple red knit that was a little too shear and drapey. You can see the outline of bra straps in the back, which I'm never a fan of, and you can actually see them if the light is right. The shirt is low cut enough that a camisole underneath shows, and the twist pattern is busy enough without adding another fabric to the look. So, I decided to attempt a lining. I didn't want to just duplicate the twist pattern in the lining because that'd be a little bulky, so I basically guessed at the shape I needed for the front pieces and fixed it up on the dress form. I suppose you could call this my first attempt at draping. It doesn't look faboo, but it's a lining, so who really cares? I hand stitched the lining to the armhole and back neckline. My hand stitches always end up looking a bit lumpy, but again, it's a lining, so whatever. It worked well enough that I didn't take any pictures from the outside. I wanted to wear it so quickly that it's now in the laundry:)

Winter Swimwear

The fiance and I go to Hawaii with his family every winter, so the season when I need a new swimsuit is winter, not summer. So I decided to attempt to make a few coordinating tops and bottoms. If I make them out of the same combination of colors, I should be able to mix and match.

I made the pattern on the right (the view you can't see) way back when and it went ok but not great. It's a string bikini top and a normal panty bottom. It didn't fit great (not shocking, since apparently I hadn't adjusted at that time to the fact that pattern sizes run way small, and I made a 10), and the strings for the bikini were a giant pain. Unfortunately, it means that the pattern I bought is a 10, so I'm going to have to learn how to size it up to a 12 or a 14.

I think I'll start with the center top of the right pattern, maybe trying to apply that waistband to a boy-cut short. Burgundy and pink for the bottom, then black with a burgundy center for the top. Luckily, all the pattern use a fraction of the width of the fabric, so I should be able to cut a number of different pieces.

Now to finish at least one old project before I start on another!

Let's Try This Again

I have a tendency to start a blog, and then get distracted by another topic which is inappropriate to that blog, so I start another, and none of them get more than 5-6 posts long. Witness here. So I'm just going to post whenever about whatever I happen to want to talk about - keep it themeless. Let's see if I can actually maintain a blog this time!