Dress with pleats

And here's the dress.

E and I had both taken the day off work today, so he was kind enough to take a few pictures. However, the weather was grey, windy and cold so we decided not to go outside. And I was feeling a bit tired so I wasn't on my best posing behaviour...

Anyway, as I told you before, the dress is made from a thin but sturdy denim-like fabric with pinstripes woven in and floral silhouettes printed on.

I think it's the print I really had to get used to. On the whole, I don't wear a lot of prints. I love plain colours, stripes and plaid. I can see the beauty of a print but I don't use it for myself very often. I don't really know why but it has become such a part of the way I dress that it feels a bit weird to wear one all-over.

I made the dress as I sketched it earlier: cut-on cap sleeves, button front without collar and a slightly flared skirt with two big pleats at the front which start with the pockets.

At first, I didn't like the way the pleats flare open. I tried pressing them but that actually looked worse. After wearing the dress for a day so, I don't mind that much anymore. It's just a natural result of having pleats on one's legs in a fairly narrow skirt. And the resulting silhouette is, in fact, flattering and easy to wear.

And did I mention there are pockets in those pleats? The top of the front skirt is one piece, the pleats only come in at the top of the hip and I've made pockets at the top of them. I didn't end up buttoning them down, mostly because I realized that would make to pocket openings too narrow. Oh, and partially as a result of that, I didn't use the contrasting buttons.

I think it will serve me well as a spring/summer dress.

En Vogue

I can't believe I haven't shown you this yet: a couple of weeks ago, I bought this in an internet auction.

A book containing half a year of Vogue magazine. From 1915.
Based on the pictures and information in the ad, I expected it to be French (very beautiful but quite hard to read for me) but it's American (so, easy to read and a first in my vintage magazine collection). 
I think the magazine was published twice a month back then, but not all issues are there. For today, I'll give you a bit of a taste by showing you a part of the issue from 15 May. These magazines were quite thick, so even when I just focus on fashion and a bit of atmosphere, there are still too many images for one post.

 First of all: the covers are all amazing colour drawings like these.

There is a lot advertising inside, but I really don't mind, because a lot of it is showing the elegant ladies the readers, supposedly, aspired to be.
I love these kimono's which are still quite clearly related to their oriental inspiration.

And of course, famous department stores try to draw in the customers as well. Here, Bonwit Teller is showing it's new selection of bathing suits.

May is when polite society is preparing for the summer holiday, so there is an extensive feature about traveling and the travel wardrobe. Clearly, Vogue was targeting a well-to-do reader who could afford to travel regularly and in comfort and style.

There are also features about holiday destinations. Because of the war in Europe, all of those are in the America's (ranging from California, to Panama, to Buenos Aires).

And then, there is the fashion report: Paris serves two masters. Fashion and war, I suppose.

Apparently, even in 1915, designers in Paris were already courting audiences in the US. 

 Of the names in this, Lanvin is the only fashion house which is still in business today. Vintage fashion fans may also recognize the name Paquin, which was still around in the 1950's.

There are lovely designs there. Some more, some less radical in their shapes. I like how the original owner marked some designs with pencil. Did she plan on buying those? Or was she going to show them to her seamstress and ask for a copy? (you were actually not allowed to do that, but I guess people still did sometimes)

I think this post is long enough like this but there are still more bits of fashion report to show you... That will have to wait till another time.

Just checking in

Ok, last week kind of broke my posting streak... I didn't mean for it to happen but it did anyway.
And although I'm back today, it's not even with a proper post.
I finished the dress I told you about (in fact, I'm wearing it right now) but I just missed my photo opportunity yesterday. Oh well, I will show it to you later.
Maybe it's good because initially, I wasn't that pleased with the way the pleats behaved. And now, I think I've learned to live with them. As you'll see soon.

Today, I thought I'd show you the fabric I bought at the market this morning.
I've never made it a habit to show all my fabric purchases on my blog but this one is interesting because it's a bit out of character for me:

Mystery fibre (but without static cling!) crepe in a muted orange (1,5 meter) and cotton with a nice hand and a kind of 'swirling dots' print which could look 1930's or 1970's depending on its use(3 meters). Normally, prints like this are done on polyester. I'm not really a print kind of girl but finding this stuff in a nice material convinced me to try. As for the crepe, my attention was first caught by a smaller piece in ocher yellow. Which happens to be one of my all-time favorite colours which I shouldn't wear. It makes me look ill. This time I was wise and went for the odd colour I can wear.

You may have noticed I was talking about pieces of fabric... That's right these were cut pieces. 
Because they're back. Once a year, for a few weeks, on two of the four weekly market days, these sellers come and sell big piles of fabric pieces which have been used as sample fabrics for sewing workshops. The good, the bad and the ugly all thrown together. You have to buy the lengths as they are but they're only 1 euro a meter. I've bought some great stuff there in the past (like the boiled wool for my green cape).
Today's offerings were a bit lackluster compared to the previous times but I know they will bring new stock each day they're there. 
So if you happen to be in the area, it's worth checking out. I'm sure they'll be there again next Monday (and probably some other day later this week, I just don't know which one).

P.S. Over the past months, I've realized I have more Dutch readers than I had guessed before. And I know someone visited the market in The Hague on my advice last year.
At the moment, the The Hague market is a bit of a mess. It's in the process of being completely renovated. All the fabric and haberdashery stalls are still there but they're spread all over the half of the market where there are no building works yet. As a result, many can't bring or display all their usual stock. 
So, I've been thinking. In a few months, when the renovation is over and all the sewing-related vendors have settled into their new stalls, would you be interested in me doing a bit of show-and-tell about them? Show what those places look like and what you can best buy where?
Just let me know ;)

I got distracted...

Again.
It seems that whenever I say I'm going to make something, I loose interest and decide to go and make something completely different. And it's no different this time.
Last month, despite knowing I kind of needed another pair of trousers and some  simple tops, I was all set to start on a stripey vintage style dress. Life got in the way and nothing was done. Then, I made a shirt for E and discussed making him a new pair of trousers as well. And mentioned in passing that I should actually start working on a light coat or casual jacket for him too because the old ones are starting to look a bit tired.
I won't even list the many other more or less nice things I have been thinking about making in that same time. There a just too many of those.

This weekend though, I finally had enough time to actually get started on a new project. And, maybe to no-ones surprise (certainly not to my own) I decided to go for something I enjoy designing, drafting and sewing: a sort-of 1950's style dress. 

This is the rough sketch for it. Little cut-on cap sleeves, button front, side zipper and a slim skirt with a feature I always find intriguing when I see it in vintage fashion illustrations: Pleats which are 'buttoned on' the front of the skirt. Mine will have pockets in the tops of those pleats. I'm still figuring out the best way to construct those on the inside but it's just too good of an opportunity to miss.

I'm using this a somewhat coarsely woven but fairly thin cotton. It's a bit denim-like although it's a plain weave. The interesting thing about it is that it's woven with pinstripes but has this bold pattern of flowers and foliage printed over it.
And I thought I'd play to the denim-effect by using these silver-coloured buttons.

I've just started sewing. Hopefully, I'll be able to finish it in the coming week.  

The wide online world

A little while ago, I received an email from Seamstress Erin, who asked if I would like to take part in her series of interviews with sewing bloggers about their connection between sewing and style.
Of course, I would like that! I felt flattered and I think the focus of her series is really interesting.
Today, she published the 'interview' with me. It's here.

The shirt

And this is the shirt I made for E.

As you can see, he immediately felt comfortable in it.

I used my usual sloper: the 'tailored shirt block' from Winifred Aldrich's Metric Pattern Cutting for Menswear.

And here you can see the shirt properly. It's very simple: no pockets, short sleeves and a camp collar. I think I've told this before, but E has a fairly short neck and really doesn't like tight, high collars. So, when I started sewing for him, I tried to find a solution. Camp collars are where that ended up.
The fabric is the same white and black cotton plaid I used for his robe last year. For this shirt, I made the front facings and the under collar in thin black cotton and stitched everything in black. 
Of course, I made an effort to match the plaid, at least at the horizontal lines in the body. I made it work pretty well.

And here's a little detail I didn't show in my previous post: how to cut the back yoke.
I can't take any credit for this neat little trick. It's from David Page Coffin's Shirtmaking.
The idea is simple: When you're wearing a shirt, people are going to pay more attention to its fit and design from the front than from the back. If you choose a fabric with stripes or checks and you cut the back yoke on the fold (as usual in most patterns), you'll end up with angled, broken lines at the front edge of the yoke. Which is where people will see them. Quite often, you'll also get some odd line action at the back because most shirt yokes are slightly curved at the bottom.
So, instead, you cut the yoke in two pieces and aline each front edge with the lines in the fabric. Of course, this will result in a center back seam and a slight 'A' shape at the back but I think that's a small price to pay for the nice look at the front. Certainly with E's hairstyle.
If the fabric you are using changes shape easily when use off grain, it's important to make a double yoke with the inside cut on the fold. In this fabric, that wasn't needed.
And I don't know if you can tell from this picture, but I went one step further yet and also cut the front edges of the collar along the stripes of the plaid.

And of course, I used the two tricks I showed you in the previous post, to get a nice finish at those hems.

Shirt details

I'm making a new shirt for E. One with short sleeves. It's been a while but I've made so many that all my shirt-making habits are well established. And short sleeved shirts are quick to make because they lack some of the most labour-intensive bits of a shirt: sleeve slits and cuffs.

In this post, I thought I'd share some of the details of this shirt. Details which are easy to make but apparently not very common. At least, I've never seen them on other blogs.

First: Nice, simple, professional looking, decorative hems for short shirt sleeves. I've seen hem like these in RTW and they're easy to make if you plan ahead.

It starts with the pattern: Trace your pattern on a piece of paper, decide on the sleeve length you want and draw a straight line for the hem. Determine how deep you want your hem to be and draw a line below and parallel to the hem at that distance (mine is 3,5 cm). Cut the paper you don't need off along that line, then fold along the line for the hem and cut out the sleeve. This way, the shape of the sides of the sleeves will be mirror in the bit for the hem.
Now, you can cut out the sleeves as usual.

The sewing of the sleeve hem happens at the usual stage in the construction of the shirt: near the end, when the whole thing has been assembled and all it still needs are hems, buttons and buttonholes.

With the shirt inside out, press the hem width to the inside of the sleeve.

Turn the sleeve up further, at the same width and press again, encasing the raw edge in the new fold.

Stitch at about 0,5 cm this fold.

Fold it back again and press flat.

Turn the shirt right side out. Your sleeve has been hemmed without any ugly edges on show. It has a sort of mock-cuff or mock-turn-up (the stitching is hard to see on my sleeve because I stitched exactly on the black stripe) which is in fact nothing more than a tuck, parallel to the hemline, which just happens to work as a hem too.

The second thing I wanted to show you is a simple cheat's method for hemming curved shirt tails. I've never liked fiddling with those narrow hems which pull at the  shaped bits on the bottom of a shirt. And I'm not above using techniques I've learned in dress making for menswear.
I use bias tape. The regular store-bought variety, cotton for E, cotton or satin for myself. Preferably fairly narrow, 1 or 1,5 cm.

Stitch in the fold, on the right side of the shirt. If you're using a facing at the front, let the tape end in the facing. If you want to hem the whole front, let the tape extend about 1,5 cm at the front edges so you can fold those back to form a finished edge.

Press the tape to the inside of the shirt, in such a way that the seam falls in the inside.

Stitch the tape down along its edge. 

And there you have it. An effortless curved hem.

I hope everything is clear and you can use these finishing details.
I'll show you the shirt properly later this week.