Sew, I've Been Thinking ...

With little sewing time this week I have only managed only meagre item. This dress is Vogue 1100, a wardrobe pattern I am not sure why I bought. I rather like the dress, though, and I may try the jacket come autumn. This is another quilting cotton. The print looks a little Japanese to me. Like the last dress I made, I've lined this in cotton poplin, an olive green this time. On a recent episode of Project Runway, one of the judges asked a contestant what point there was in lining a dress in a bright colour because 'no one sees it'. Well, I disagree. I see the inside of my dress and I like seeing the lovely green inside. Of course, I did not think to photograph it. I altered the construction method so that the lining could be completely bagged and there was no handsewing at all. This has to be the neatest dress inside that I have ever made. I'm almost ready to start my Chanel jacket. I think I've made a decision ... In the meantime, when I was looking at the Vogue w...

I've been agonising over my Chanel jacket and still have not decided on the pattern, the lining or the trim. So I made this dress instead. It's Butterick 5277. I bought it for View C with the collar because it has a nice retro feel to it, but for a quick fix I made this version of View A. It's a quilting cotton, lined with plain brown cotton poplin, because it's way too hot here for any other kind of lining plus I don't like the feel of silk on my skin. I muslined it first and used the tweaked muslin as the lining. It's a 10 going to a 12 at the hips as seems to be my standard for Butterick and Vogue. It fits really well but after wearing it all day today, I have to say that the sleeve caps make it a little restrictive, ie the whole dress lifts up when you raise your arms. Next time I would shorten them but about 1.5cm, maybe even 2cm and that will stop the problem. I'll compare them against a BWOF pattern of a similar style that doesn't caus...

I've become obsessed with my Chanel jacket. I was up until very late last night reading the Claire Shaeffer book about couture sewing and I've spent a large part of the morning staring at my fabric. You will notice from yesterdays post that I have one unfinished jacket already and if you look in the background of those pictures you will see my previous jacket, also unfinished. It just needs hemming, buttons and bloody good press. I will finish the silk tweed today ... I want to wear it on Wednesday. But back to Chanel .. I am quite keen to use the selvege as a trim and have been trying to think of a way to cover the white chain stitch. I think if I make a braid and stitch it down, it should work. I think using a purchased trim on this fabric wouldn't look right. I think the ruggedness of the fabric demands a more rugged and less perfect trim, if that makes any sense. I dragged out a box of embroidery thread and started tossing colours around. This is what I have so f...

The silk tweed jacket just goes on and on ... I've spent the entire afternoon putting these bound buttonholes in. This fabric is so unravelly (is that a word?) that it was near impossible to get these even. They're in, but they're not my best work. I had planned to finish the lining and put the collar on today, but after this mammoth effort, I'm beat. If I were to make this again in a boucle, I would use leather for the buttonholes. I had considered a triangle of leather at the top of the pleat on the back, but I forgot about it until after I had sewn the buttonholes - it would have worked well. Here's how it looks from the front so far and the next one is the back. For a jacket with a big fold and lots of fabric, it actually is quite fitted when worn. Hopefully I'll finish it tomorrow. Next up is my Chanel Sew a long jacket. I'm considering this rough green wool. It has flecks of yellow and blue and is quite a rough weave. It puts me in mind of army bla...

I was in Thailand, wearing all five pieces from the August Wardrobe in a Week competition. I added a chocolate brown silk jersey top I bought at the op shop for $3 and an orange a-line inverted pleat skirt I made from a scrap leftover from something else I made years ago. I slipped in three cardigans, one orange and one brown short sleeve cropped cardis that are perfect for slipping over things when the airconditioning is too cold, one long sleeved brown one for the plane because I am always cold on planes and a bikini, also orange and brown. These small capsules are perfect for travel and I highly recommend this kind of wardrobe planning to anyone who has a trip coming up. It would be simple to extend this collection for a cooler climate and the wardrobe I sewed this past winter already works in the same way if I take a winter holiday. As luck would have it, a few days before I was to leave I forgot to take shoes to work. I train every morning at 6am and usually shove my work clothes ...