Another picture-less post, and my reasons for it.

I still have no new creations to show you all. Nothing new of and for myself, that is. I'll explain how that came to be.

First of all, as I told you before, I've been helping designer friend M get her collection ready for not one, but two important event. The second one of those was a big succes (for this very small eco-brand) and the fall-out of it has kept us busy ever since. Tomorrow, I'll take some pictures to add the new looks to her website. We hope to keep people interested and hopefully, this will allow us to actually make some money for all our hard work.

Secondly, I had a small asignment of my own, resizing two vintage dresses (one of them only needed a new, shorter hemline). Working on that led to the third, sad reason...

My sewing machine broke down. My beautiful, expensive, high-tech sewing machine which I've only own since the end of May suddendly had a problem. Whether turning automatically, or by hand, the needle wouldn't go down to it's lowest position. None of the usual causes were there. No bent needle, no tangled thread. I took it to the shop and the repair guy agreed with me that this was all very strange... That was last Wednesday. The machine had to stay there, so hopefully they would be able to find out what was wrong with it and repair that. If not, it will have to be sent back to the factory. In Taiwan.

(did I mention before how I really need my sewing machine? Not just for my peace of mind but also because right now, it's my only way of making any kind of income.)

Of course, M is happy to let me do my sewing at her place if necessary and my machine is still well with in its garanteed time, so everything should work out in the end.

For the time being, when I not working, I'm drafting patterns, doing a bit of knitting, tell myself I really should work on making a website, read (I found some great fashion history books at the library), watch DVD's (Tudors and DS 9, what does that make me? ;), and somehow buy a lot more at the thrift stalls than usual.

Check back later this week for pictures of my thrifting adventures and a lot more sewing, fashion and clothes related rambling.

Getting ready for autumn

I'm a bit late in posting about this dress. I actually finished it a few weeks ago, but for the reason I posted about before, I didn't get the chance to photograph it until today. Just one picture for now, because I'm actually pretty tired and don't feel much like modeling today.

I year, I make the solemn resolution not to 'run out of season' with my sewing again. However, it's so tempting to keep making summer dresses as long as there's bright sunshine outside... I think I started drafting the pattern for this dress, really trying to keep this promise to myself this year, by the end of July. It was meant to be a wear-it-in-many-ways-dress. To make that possible, it's got a big double box pleat at the back which can be closed to the waist with buttons and fairly deep side slits, also closed with buttons. For the rest of it, this is a wide, button-down, A-line shirt dress with raglan sleeves and in seam pockets. I really like the look, as shown in the picture. The many other options, however, didn't work quite as well...

Still here, just busy

I feel like I should apologize for the lack in posting these past few weeks. I've been incredibly busy helping my wonderful friend and indie designer M design, draft and sew an entire summer collection of 16 pieces, in just one month. It's almost done now and I promise to try and get back to more regular posting by the end of next week. I still managed to make two garments which should get some attention here. So they'll be up first, as soon as I have the opportunity to take some pictures.

Half a tutorial on the Watteau pleat

It took me a bit longer than promised (life getting in the way there), but I finally made my little drawings. So now I can explain the construction of the Watteau pleat dress a little better. What I'll writing here is about making a 'latter-day Watteau pleat dress' like my own. The pleat is pretty much similar to the one on a historical dress, the rest of the dress however, is not.

That said, let's move on to this half tutorial of mine. I made my dress based on my personal sloper, but what I made was a dress with armhole princess seams which is fairly fitted through chest and waist. A dress with pockets in the front side pieces, obviously. You could insert the pleat at the back into any pattern which roughly suits that describtion (if it is shaped by darts, that would be fine too. The important things are a fitted top, no horizontal waist seam at the back and a shaped center back seam and having the full shoulder line on the same pattern piece makes drafting the pleat easier).

On you center back pattern piece, mark how far out on the shoulder you want the widest part of the pleat to be. At the back seam, draw a straight line from the neck down, as shown. All the lines for the pleat will be parallel to this one.

In this drawing, you can see the pleat in its full glory. The line at piece number 1 should be placed on the fold when cutting the fabric. The easiest way to go at drafting this monster is by using something like tracing paper. Place it on your normal pattern piece, along the line you've drawn. The piece between the waist of the dress and the line should be added to the pleat pattern piece, on the 'outside' (so mirroring it over the center back line).

Take care that the edge of the paper won't move away from the center back line and pull the rest to the line you marked at the shoulder. You are now making piece 8 in the drawing. This is the lowest layer of the pleat. Fold the paper back at the line and make a new line, about 4 cm from the one you came from. This is piece 7. Fold back again and go back half the width of piece 7, creating piece 6. Each line in the drawing is a fold, you have to fold 7 over 8, 6 over 7 and 5 over 6, then 4 is folded under 5, 3 under 4, 2 under 3 and 1 under 2.

The width of piece 5 should be the width of piece 8 minus the width of piece 7. 5 will be the part of the pleat best visible on the outside. It's the part I made in the printed fabric. Piece 4 should be the same with as 6, 3 the same as 7. These four folds create the distinctive double folded look of the Watteau pleat. With pleat 3, you should be back at center back. The exact width of pieces 1 and 2 is not important, but they should be the same, allowing for a basic pleat at the center.

When you're done folding the pleat, cut the tracing paper along the shoulder line of the original pattern piece. Or, if you prefer, make a small shoulder yoke like many historical dresses have. In any case, cut the pleat with the paper folded.

In fabric the pleat should be folded just like you did in paper. Just make sure you add the 'negative' bit from the original center back line to piece 8. For the dress itself, you have to use the original center back line. When sewing the back of the dress, stitch piece 8 to center back. Then, onto piece 8 stitch the straight vertical line for the pleat from the neck till a bit below the waist. Finally, stitch center back pieces to each other (catching the seam allowance of the pleat) until the end of the straight seam.

I hope you can make sense of my explaination. Don't hesitate to drop a comment if I'm not making sense, but please bear in mind that I'm only an amateur at this and English isn't my first (sewing) language. But if you want to make your own Watteau pleat dress, I'll be happy to help and I would love to see the result. Just leave a link in the comments! (of course, this applies to personal use, not commercial)

To make this tutorial a bit clearer, as requested by Cristina, I'm now adding this picture which shows how the pleats are stacked. Ignore all the vertical lines exept the 'piece between bodice and pleat' one, they're just there to make the picture understandable.

More on Watteau pleats

In the comments, someone asked about how to make a Watteau pleat. Actually, it's not that difficult. I started out studying pictures like the one in my first post about it. Trying to determine how it was built up and how far it was stitched down.

However, on my recent trip to the book store (ah, books and fabric, my two great weaknesses...) I found this great book.

In it were pictures like this one, which shows how the back of an orginal sack back dress was folded. I did mine the same way, before I found the book.

Essentially the pleat is completely straight, all its parts are the same width for their entire length. I'll have to make some little drawings to show you how to engineer that thing into a dress, but its about time I go to work. So more about that tomorrow.

Watteau pleat day dress

Finally, here they are, as promised: the pictures of my Watteau pleat dress. Please don't pay attention to the slightly weird poses and strained facial expressions. I never look well on self-timer. I took pictures from front, back and sides to really show off the different faces of this dress.

Seen from the front, it looks like a vaguely vintage inspired day dress. And of course, it has pockets...

From the side, you can really see the 'gap' between my back and the pleat. There is a bit of fabric there, reacting space between the slightly hollow back seam and the straight pleat.

And from the back you can see the Watteau pleat in all its glory. I know it would have been more historically correct to have the entire back of the dress in the same fabric (gowns of that era closed at the front, sometimes showing a contrasting or matching stomacher and petticoats there) but I ran out of the black and white printed fabric. I thought this would be the best way to deal with the fabric shortage, although it means that my pleat will not blend in with my skirt seamlessly like in the historical examples.

I am rather happy with this dress. It was a big experiment, but I think the end result looks good, and was suprisingly easy to make. But of course, the proof of the pudding is in the eating, and for any of my sewing creations that means wearing it out. I haven't worn this one outdoors yet, and based on the reactions on my (much more 'normal') double polkadot dress, I may be in for a treat. I have shown the dress to a friend however. She liked it, even though she's not into 'unusual dressing' herself.

By the way, Watteau was a painter in the late 17th and early 18th century. The pleat is called after him because he painted a lot of ladies wearing the 'sackback gown' or 'robe a la francaise' fashionable at the time.

I'm the girl in the big dress

I was free from work this afternoon and I walked into town to buy tea and check out the second hand book store. Nothing worth mentioning really, if I hadn't done so looking like this.

Now, it was a different story. Elderly couples pointed me out to each other with their eyes (older people tend to be more polite). Fashionista's in their early twenties (wearing low cut skinny jeans or zouave trousers themselves) pointed, giggled or looked away disdainfully. Little girls stared openly and in awe.

I'm not particularly self-conscious about wearing this dress. I made it last summer, I've worn it several times, I meant for it to look a bit like a fifties dress and most important, I like it and I like how I look in it. This means I'm not going to be put off by the way people react to the sight of me in this dress.

I choose not to wear the usual young urban 'uniform' of jeans and a trendy t-shirt variaty, so I already know I may get some strange looks. What's interesting here is what people will react, and how.

In my experience (I've had a bit of a history in trying out different looks, and I'm still going strong) little girls will love anything which looks quintessentially girly. So full skirted fifties frocks are bound to be a hit, but so are long skirted romanti-goth do's. Young, trendily dressed women will often dislike just about anything which seriously breaks their dresscode.

Other reactions tend to be more random. Today, the elderly couples may have recognized the silhouet, and wondered about it. Approvingly or disapprovingly, I do not know.

Following Burdastyle and some sewing/fashion blogs, I have seen plenty of vintage style dresses made by other people. I'm wondering: Do you wear those out a lot? Do you get the looks? And what do you think of that?