Little boy blue?

My jeans are finished but still await a photo opportunity. So, I thought I'd talk to you about the project I've just started on. And the issue that stirs up.

I'm making another outfit for my nephew, baby J. 

My mum, his gran, has been knitting a a cardigan for him and she asked me to make a t-shirt and a pair of trousers so we could give him a complete outfit.

She picked the yarn a while ago. It's kind of lilac. Based on that, she first suggested I would make both trousers and t-shirt in beige. 

I thought that would be just a bit... eh... So I came up with other suggestions and sent her swatches: dark blue jeans (the same thin jeans I've just used for myself) with unbleached cotton jersey or beige cotton twill with dark blue rib knit. I also threw in a scrap of dark blue an off-white striped cotton. She chose the stripe and the off-white jersey. I guess she really didn't want any dark colours for this outfit.

Which is a bit surprising for a woman who knit a dark blue wrap for her first-born (that would be yours truly) during her breaks at work despite the criticism of a co-worker. Oh well, opinions change over time.

I had traced patterns from Knippie magazine last month (from a book of last year's issues from the library. And yesterday, I cut them out. Now, I just need to sew both items before Saturday afternoon...

My mother's choice of yarn surprised me a bit. I don't know why she picked this colour. It doesn't exactly scream 'baby boy'... I would have gone for a brighter and/or stronger colour. 

I don't think she has consulted my sister, J's mother either.

When I did so before sewing his coat-suit, she told me, and I quote: "Tough and beautiful colours look well on J, e.g. light or dark blue or green. Brown or grey can look nice as well. I think plain black and white would be boring but of course, these could work in a combination. Girly colours are, of course, not suitable for him".

He was eight months old at the time.

I didn't comment on it then but I was a bit surprised at the completely spontaneous gender stereotyping. In my opinion, no casual observer could possibly guess the gender of a child of that age if he/she were wearing his/her diaper. So I don't really buy into the theory that he would obviously look best in "real boy's" colours... Of course, the unisex look of any infant might be why a parent would want to show the gender through clothing.

Reading back, I was surprised again. This time at the fact that she only mentioned colours which would even be acceptable in rather conservative menswear. Even when steering clear from 'girly colours', there should be plenty of nice bright hues to choose from for a baby boy...

Of course, we were talking about a winter coat so that may have been a factor in her considerations. 

I made a blue coat with red rib knit details and they were happy with it.

It still puzzles me though.

Looking at the young parents among my friends and family, it seems to be such a natural thing to show off the gender of children too young to have any notion of it. You'd almost think it was a general human tendency to do so.

Except that history-mad me knows that it isn't.

To start on the issue of colour, the 'pink for girls, blue for boys' rule which seems so normal now is, in fact, less than a century old. Here in the Netherlands, it came in after the Second World War, under the influence of American products and advertising. Before that, children's clothes weren't strictly colour-coded. And if anything, pink was for boys. This owed to old colour theories in which red was a real men's colour, symbolizing courage and strength while blue stood purity and tranquility. For children, lightened versions of colours were deemed appropriate, so pink for boys. 

If you would like to read more about colour stereotypes, go this blog which I just found when researching pictures for this post.

And if you thought my remark about the unisex look of infants was a bit crazy, what would you say if I told you that for a long time, all children up to about three years of age were dressed the similarly. In skirts.

In this picture (this and the next are from late 19th century Harper's Bazar), all the non-standing children are just described as 'infants' without any distinction in gender.

When they got a bit older, differences between boys and girls were introduced gradually. The small child here is dressed in an "outfit for boys aged 2 to 5". So, he's in a skirt but the same outfit wouldn't be worn by a girl.

Actually, I've got an anecdote to back up the evidence of these engravings. It's a story my father told me: As a child, he would often visit his grandparents. In their house, there was an old picture of a small child in a dress with long hair in pin curls. He had remembered it all that time because it was a picture of his grandfather, whom he knew as large, impressive man.

I've never seen that particular picture (I wish more of those old family pictures were still around!) but it must have been taken around 1900.

And don't think the practice of dressing boys and girls alike ended in the dawn of the 20th century either. It may have done for a lot of people but in regional costume, it stuck around for longer. 

These are boy's costumes from the Dutch village Marken, as on display in the Zuiderzee museum (I mentioned the old fishing villages on the IJsselmeer before, in this post).

And here you can see a girl and a boy (first picture) and a boy (second one) wearing the special Queen's day celebration versions of the costume (that's why the outfits are all orange) in 1980 (I found the picture on this news archive site). 

Marken is one of the last places in the Netherlands in which traditional costumes are still worn and it likely that a lot of people will only still wear them for special occasions. Still, the boy looks perfectly comfortable in his skirt.

I read a lot about clothing and gender on sewing blogs, so the little issue of picking colours for baby J made me think more than it maybe should...

And yet, if we wonder why adults think in stereotypes, doesn't it all start young?  I'm not a mother, so maybe it's easy for me to criticize.

What are your thoughts on colours and styles for small children? Are things there clear 'rules' for those where you live? And do you think parents should care about those? 

Blue like the sky on a clear morning

That's what I keep thinking when looking at this fabric. And, quite appropriately, we've had some very nice clear mornings, followed by dreary, cloudy, rainy afternoons this week. So, perfect time to introduce an easy, throw-over kind of cardi in this great colour into my wardrobe.

It wasn't warmly received in my previous post and I get that. A blocky top. Don't the pattern companies throw enough sack patterns our way already? Well, I guess they do. As you know, I'm no expert.

However, I do know that with loosely fitted garments, it's all about amount and proportion. You need to find the perfect balance between free-flowing fabric and showing some of the body underneath. It can be hit-and-miss, but it's quite do-able in a drapey knit.

This particular fabric is fairly thick but has a nice hand.

I designed it to be worn either loose or belted (although belts are always tricky for me. I love them on already fitted dresses, but I'm always hesitant about the cinched-with-a-belt look) and there are no closures. I think I may have to buy something like a little brooch, because I do like having the option of closing it in different places without having buttons or snaps on display when I wear it some other way.

I like how the proportions of this thing lend themselves to different, sometimes vaguely vintage-y looks.

Near Japanese minimalism?

Boxy 60's jacket?

50's leisure-wear?

This one is a bit frumpy to me, but somewhere half-way through the 20th century, mademoiselle might have approved...

P.S. Carolyn recently posted about how annoying the word-recognition gizmo can be, and how it discourages her from commenting. As an experiment, I've just turned mine off. Obviously, I hope to encourage commenting here. I'll wait and see if the spam-bots find me again.

Also, my email adress is now in the sidebar.

Cardigan snatched from the brink of defeat

Finally, it was a clear day today. So, in a little break from my 'obsessing over jackets' posts, I can show you the cardigan I made last week. The one which I feared would also be destined to fail. I think I kind of saved it though.

What can I say about it? Of course I made the pattern for it myself. And I tried to be quite clever about it. I wanted a round open front with nice draping, a normal set-in sleeve and a collar. The pattern I made has no side seams and just a small upper back piece. The rest, collar, front and lower back, is all one large curved piece. I made the sleeves a bit wider than usual so I would be able to wear this over things with sleeves as well as over tank tops.

As I was sewing it together, I found out the draping ended up much more on the side than at the front. I should have realised that would happen, but I hadn't. There wasn't really anything I could do about it at that point, so I just finished it to see how it would turn out. I ended up taking about 10 cm off the original length.

I'm Ok with it now. It may not be entirely what I envisioned but doesn't look that bad and it fits really well in colour plan. In fact, it really is the kind of colour which goes with almost everything in my wardrobe and instantly brightens up any outfit.

Readers, dear readers, write on the wall...

Which is the fairest skirt of them all?

It's official: I now have not one but two mustard yellow skirts. And I'm starting to get obsessed with this fabric (I had to buy all 4,5 meters left on the bolt, or pay the same for the 1,5 I orginally wanted... so have enough left even now). I've wanted to find this colour since last winter and it now seems to be the star of my autumn/winter colour plan. A strong colour, but not too saturated for a pale girl like me. Golden, but not in such a way that it makes my hair look colourless... While working on this skirt, I realised it's also like the colour of one of my favorite Indian curries ;)

Fortunately, I don't have to choose between my skirts. The only choice I have to make is which one to wear today.

In my latest post, I told you about my problems with the pattern and assembly of this skirt. I'm happy to report that it is finished now, and the problems have been sorted out. I do like the look, although it wouldn't work in every fabric. The interesting alignment of the front pleats throws them massively off grain. You need a fabric which hold the pleats when pressed and doesn't stretch too much on the crossgrain. My wool fabric has those qualities and I must say the off-grain pleats give the skirt a nice swing.

The back (cut as one piece, so no perfectly on-grain pleating there either) has normal pleats, a double at the center and a single one on each side.

I made the skirt a bit longer than most other winter skirts I own, hemming it to a length well past the knee. I'm reading everywhere how midi-skirts are back and, like with my summer dresses, I think the sweep of a full skirt needs a bit of length.

And this, of course, is my first skirt in this fabric. A (also a bit longer) pencil skirt with a double box pleat at the back. I have blogged about it before and you don't really have to make me choose between the two, but it was the one which worked better with my new top. This fabric has been in my stash for years. I bought it quite cheaply, swayed by the sellers claim that it is a silk/viscose mix. It stayed in my stash because of the colour. I like grey, but this blue/grey was really too boring. Until I came up with the option of wearing it with a nice, rich colour like mustard yellow. I'm still not so sure about it, but I think it looks good with this skirt.

The pattern is basically the same as this one, I just made longer sleeves. And I changed the top bit: scoop neckline instead of little standing collar, side seam bust darts instead of tucks at the neckline and instead of that nice keyhole, I made this:

Just to keep the top from being too plain and boring. I made individual facings for each hole and the neckline, which were then joined together with pressed in edges and hand-sewing. They are my favorite feature of this top.

Everything but the stockings

I promised their would be colour to my autumn sewing, didn't I?

This skirt has been finished for over a week but I really wanted to be able to show it off the way I had imagined it. Without resorting to black or grey wardrobe staples.

The mustard coloured wool isn't from stash, I bought that recently. I really wanted a colour like it for my autumn/winter colour scheme, so, when I stumbled across this stuff when shopping for zippers, I couldn't resist. And because there was 'only' 4.5 meter left on the roll, the seller offered me a serious discount if I would just take the lot. Which means I will have to make more clothes in this colour. I'm thinking about a matching jacket, either nipped-waisted and New Look-alike or early 60's style block-y, and maybe a mod dress and/or a full skirt of some kind.

This is a very simple pencil skirt with a double box pleat at the back (my own pattern). And yes, it fits properly, I just pull it weirdly by trying some 'fun' posing... It is lined.

The shirt uses up all the fabric I had left over from making this dress, a viscose/rayon. I had drafted a different blouse, which used way to much fabric. Then, I made this, which is in fact a very quick and easy adeption of my basic sloper.

I love how it turned out. I sewed the lower ends of the darts so the blouse would fit smoothly when tucked in but just look at the shape that creates!

I may just have to make a dress based on this pattern... I think it would even work with a longer sleeve.

So far, I've mostly sewn button-down blouses but now, I've really developed a taste for vintage-style ones with side or back closures. There may be more.

And most of all, I'm happy with these colours. I, used to wearing black and muted colours as I am, would wear this in real life. Everything in colour but the stockings. And both pieces would combine really well with black, grey, brown and olive as well. The colour scheme is here to stay!

First time in autumn colours

Do you remember my statement of intent regarding colours for this autumn/winter? Well, even though I've been a bit slow at sewing this past week, my mind has been working overtime. I want to create a sort of capsule-wardrobe from these fabrics. With pieces which can work together or with other thing which I already have (which are mostly black and grey, so that shouldn't be too hard). So far, I've dreamt up two trouser suits, two cardigans, two sleeveless woven tops, one or two sleeveless or short-sleeved knit tops, one or two skirts, two long-sleeved tops (although I would have to buy fabric for one of those) and a refashioned jumper. And that's just with the fabrics which fit in the colour palet.

This is the first piece to make it into reality. I bought this fabric at the market when it crazily cheap on sale (50 cents a meter). My reasoning was that if it turned out to be nasty, I could at least use it to make muslins. But it's something like cotton fannel (I did a burn test, it's definately a plant fibre) and ridiculously soft. I'm just a bit concerned about its durability.

In my opinion, cheap fabric is ideal for experiments. I like the vintage style trousers with side closures which I see on other blogs. However, I haven't worn any trousers without a front fly for at least 12 years. And I was considering buttons for this one as well.

To make a long story short, I drafted these from my trouser block. They're quite simple: wide straight legs, a straight waistband at the natural waist and buttons at the left side.

I'm happy. They fit just like I wanted them too, don't gape between the buttons and are very comfortable. I'm wearing them here with silk shirt nr. 2, which I didn't alter.

I just remembered something quite ironic: one of my very first serious attempts at making clothes (when I was about 14 years of age) was a pair of trousers in a very similar colour. It was in the early 90's and the pattern came from Knipmode: waist-high, tight and tapered trousers (probably meant to be a bit like leggings) with a side (!) zipper and zippers at the ankles. I made them in polyesther gabardine with brass zippers. With a matching tunic. I've only worn them a few times. The fit wasn't right and the side zipper was unfaced and its teeth bit in my hip at every twist and turn.

It seems my sewing has almost come full-circle. Now with more knowledge and skill.

Stash fabrics for autumn

Based on what I read on other blogs, my style of fabric shopping may be somewhat a-typical. This is owed mostly to how I find most of my fabrics: stalking the sales of the local fabric stores and mostly, the stalls of the The Hague market. Especially the market is a source of cheap fabric. Most of it is polyesther nastiness, with some OK cottons thrown in for good measure. However, over time, I have perfected the art of finding the one bolt of nice wool blend, all cotton jersey or whatever else in natural fibres, on the entire stall. Although I don't buy anything I really wouldn't wear, this strategy means I often buy out of season and Isometimes end up with a lot of similar colours (like olive coloured jersey: I've got lots of it, all cotton, but in three different weights and unfortunately the colours don't match exactly). I have also, in this past year, realised I have to buy more colour. Which can be a bit hit-and-miss.

These are all fabrics from my stash (although, to be fair, most of them, and certainly most of the striking ones, were bought within the last 6 months), which will fit in with my new colour plan for autumn winter. The colours in the picture are not exactly right, but close enough. Crucially, only the sparkly stuff (cotton voile. I'm not usually a sparkle-loving person, but I think it could be a nice accent as a sleeveless blouse worn with these rich colours) at upper left is black. The fabric in the lower left corner between the grey rib knit and the breton stripe is brown.

I thought I really, really had to find some ocher or mustard yellow for the colour scheme I wanted, but the beige-ish cotton voile gets remarkably close (and is the only fabric here which I bought thinking it wouldn't work on me but I would use it for my mother or sister. Who, by the way, are never very enthousiastic about having me sew for them. I think they're afraid I'll be overbearing style-wise. Which I wouldn't be. Or only if I'm right ;D ).

Of course there will be other fabrics too. Black wools, that eye-popping purple, tweeds and some black-and-white checks come to mind. And isn't it interesting that in my stash, apperently, prints are for summer and rich colours for winter? However, I'm quite pleased with this line-up and I'm already mentally mixing and matching the yet-to-be-made garments.

I've never colour plans before, but right now, I'm feeling inspired by them. Do you have any experience with that? Or other good planning tips?

On to autumn sewing

For the past few days, this has been the view that has greeted me in the morning. Although it's still fairly warm, this is clear sign that summer is ending, I would say.

Time to plan for autumn sewing. As usual, I really want to make use of the fabrics in my stash, I will be making my own patterns and trying to develop some new skills.

All the talk of hard-core tailoring and dressmaking on other blogs, has left me feeling like a bit of an under-achiever recently (althoug, to be fair, I make all my own clothes and rarely spend more than 10 euros on the material for one garment. So it shouldn't be a surprise that I don't always feel like making muslins and mock-ups and I never like basting...). Still, I definately want to make at least one jackets employing old-school tailoring techniques. Just for the experience.

The very thought of winter sewing makes me want to make jackets anyway.

They've never the most worn items in my wardrobe (because 1. not all jackets go

with skirts and 2. they can be too formal for some of my daily activities), but I just love making them. I think jackets or cardigans over colourful short sleeved dresses will be a look I'll try this year. And I bought more purple mystery crepe which I sort of want to make into a New Look suit...

I have been looking at pictures from the A/W 2010 fashion shows for inspiration as well. To me, the extreme shapes of high fashion tend to be a better inspiration than the everywhere-the-same stuff found on every high street. Toning things down and translating styles into wearable garments is something I can do myself.

I'm happy to see that the tapered leg trousers, which I've come to love, will still be an 'in' thing, as will beautifully flowy wide legged styles (like these, from Ann Demeulemeester). And of course, there are the longer and fuller skirts, which I've been loving all this summer.

I still like them, but not as much as I thought I would.

The Louis Vuitton show, which so many sewing bloggers have been raving about, actually looked a bit disappointing to me. Like something about the silhouet wasn't quite right... I prefer Dries van Noten for inspirational dresses for this winter (although, obviously, it's not about loving whole shows for me. it's about inspiring details and twists)

What has really surprise me however, is how much I love colour for this winter. There's always black for winter, and this year is no exception. And I've always loved it and I will probably make more black clothes, even if it's just because it's in my stash and it goes with the clothes I already have. However, out of all the shows I've looked at (I bought a magazine for the overview, looking at everything online would drive me crazy), this is what really got stuck in my mind.

Marni. I'm not loving all the shapes. Not at all. But just look at that colour palette: brown and ocher and red and turquoise. It seems like something which has been growing on me since way before I saw this. I've been looking for ocher and/or mustard coloured fabric since last winter and turquoise was my big colour discovery this summer. It's putting it all together to great effect that really blows my mind. Although it's way out of my comfort zone, I may just try and go for this kind of colour this winter...

Purple dress, purple dress

I told you I was getting into colour. Allow me to introduce: exhibit nr. 3, the purple dress.

I bought this fabric a few month ago, having fallen in love with the colour. In my mind, this is quite a vintage or retro shade of purple. Too intense and too blue to be a recent fashion colour. Considering the market stall I bought it from (which is forever selling weird fabrics which seem to be very old leftovers from somewhere, at a ridiculously low price) it may well be quite an old fabric. The guy selling it wasn't even prepared to start discussing the fibre content. So, all I can tell you is that I love the colour, it's a crepe weave, and a mystery fibre. From sewing with it, I know there's something quite synthetic in it (it gets slightly static) and some wool (I smelled that when pressing it).

I had bought two meters, and straight away I knew it just had to be some kind of vaguely sixties inspired dress. For a while, I was making other things, shying away from this vibrant colour, but last week, it was time.

I drafted this pattern myself, considering it a bit of an experiment. Usually, I don't make dresses without waist shaping and not a lot of mini things. This one had to be both. I didn't just eliminate waist darts, it also has a back pleat opening up right under the sleeve-line.

Because this fabric was cheaper than the stuff I usually use for muslins, I didn't make one of those.

I first tried it on when I had sewn the body pieces together, and was pleasantly surprised. The fabric turned out to drape a lot more than expected, making the loose shape rather flattering. Originally, I planned to make a fairly high standing collar, but I realised that would make it too strict, so I opted for a fold-over one instead.

The dress has a short placket, using sew-on snaps as the real closure and buttons from gran's stash, covered with fabric, for show.

I still have some of this fabric left, so there will be a skirt as well, fairly soon...

Weekly outfit nr.19

Back to regular posting. This is my outfit picture for this week. It seems that ever since making the green skirt and orange top, I keep thinking colour. I have been sewing a colourful dress (more about that tomorrow) and looking at colourful fabrics.

Here, I'm wearing the brightest not-summer skirt I had before the green one. It's bright red wide wale corduroy and I made it about two years ago from a pattern I made myself. With it, I'm wearing a cardigan, which is one of only two succesfull attemps at knitting I've ever made. I kind of made it last year, but at a gauge of 3,5 mm, it took me forever and it lived for quite some time as a UFO with the body pieces and one sleeve done. I am happy with the result though, and have been wearing it quite a bit on warmer days this winter. The t-shirt I wear underneath was recycled from an old plain t-shirt of my boyfriend's and painted with white fabric paint (two years ago)

Weekly outfit nr.17

Black trousers, an old favorite which I made about two years ago, a store-bought black turtle neck and the cardigan-thing which I made a while ago from one of my boyfriend's old sweaters worn with a thin belt.

By the way, I did read some comments on the colour (or lack thereof) of many of my outfit. I think I should try to give a bit of explanation on that point.

First of, I'm just one of those people who believe that everything looks good with black. My old 'uniform' (before I made all my clothes) used to consist of a skirt in a colour and a black top (or jeans and a black top, but that was just too boring).

I also used to love 'standard' romantic goth clothes. My first succesfull sewing creation was a read satin skirt with a black lace overskirt (which I wore with black tops, of course). Although my style has changed quite a bit, some of the esthetic is definately still with me.

And I went to art school. Studying photography. Art folks and photographers are still a little more prone to wearing black than the 'average person' (who doesn't exist, I know).

Also, it's still winter here. I wear black all year round, but I tend to pair it with much brighter colours when the sun is out more.

The last, but not least, reason is deeply practical one: I can't really afford to spend a lot of money on fabrics at the moment. I'm lucky to have my sources for very affordable jeans, plain cotton, wool and jersey, but the supply of colours is limited (often to black, grey or dark blue, and some ugly, very bright colours). It is very hard to find nice lighter weight fabrics (for tops) as well as anything to matching or complementing a coloured fabric or a good print. It is not just a money-thing either. If I go to the fabric store, I don't like most of their prints and very little of their colours. And, to make it harder, I prefer to sew with natural fibres.

Basically, I do have a lot of black in my winter wardrobe. For a large part, I like it that way. However, I'm definately on the lookout for some great colours to add to it, but finding them might prove to be quite a challenge.