a vintage button tale

Today, I thought I'd share this little gem with you: In 1952, Libelle magazine would occasionally publish articles about the normally unseen sides of fashion. In this case, about a button factory.

What makes this article so great, is that this is not just any button factory. It was located in Spakenburg.
Spakenburg used to be a fishing village on the shore of the Zuiderzee. After the building of the Afsluitdijk in 1932, this sea arm became a lake, the IJsselmeer and fishing villages like Spakenburg were cut off from the sea.
Apperently, this button factory was built to provide an alternative source of income for the villagers.
And many women of the village were still wearing the traditional costume for daily wear back in 1952 (I think you'd find very few doing so today…)

Theirs is a rather eye-catching costume, using different coloured prints in one outfit and creating a unique silhouette with the starched shoulder pieces (well, unique compared to 'normal' clothing. It is a feature which is present in traditional costume from a few places in the Netherlands).

Here, the ladies are sorting buckles. You can get a good look of the individual designs of their crocheted hats. Also note the hairstyle with the high quiff-like structure at the front.

The women in this picture are sewing buttons onto sample cards. Many of them look fairly young, so clearly, Spakenburg costume wasn't slowly dying out back then (if you were familiar with this particular costume, you should be able to tell the married women from the unmarried ones, based on costume details)

This last picture is a bit of fun. The Spakenburg women's costume doesn't include any visible buttons. This obviously makes it a bit ironic to see all these women working with buttons. Costume like this is bound by rules so it evolves slowly but you can't just decide to add buttons where there never were any.
These two girls are playfully considering the effect of a single large button on their outfits.

I hope you've enjoyed this look into the past. I quite like stumbling across bits of social history like this (that's another reason why I collect and read vintage magazines) but I know it won't be to everyone's taste.

A new bag

Last week, I finished my new bag. And this weekend, E took some snapshots when we walked into town.

As I've told you before, I made the bag from pieces of leather which have been used as colour samples for furniture. It's fairly thick leather and I love the colour.

I made the shoulder straps from the belts which used to hold the couch cushions in place in grandmother's old house (they attached the back rests to the wall and were going to be left behind when she moved). I'm curious to see how well they'll hold up because this leather is old and feels really dry. I left the original end with its large oval brass grommet on one of them, as you can see in these pictures.

The shape of the bag is very simple. Basically just a big sack with the bottom corners squared off, a zipper at the top and a shoulder strap which attaches to the side seam part of the way down. 

And of course it's lined and has a zippered pocket in the lining.

In case you're interested, this is the pattern, with the measurements. 

It's a bit bigger than my previous bag but it 'hangs' nicely. I think this bag and I are going to get along just fine.

Practical needs

Sewing is great. It opens up a whole range of possibilities you may not have had in RTW. Add pattern making and the sky is the limit…
This makes it quite tempting to focus on the weird and the wonderful (your weird and wonderful may vary… I know there are many seamstresses out there who'll go for a much more outrageous look than I do)

However, if you also tend to make just about everything you wear, practical requirements tend to get in the way. I try not to make things I won't wear at all. And to keep a decent amount of wardrobe staples.
And then, there are the occasional demands of circumstance. Recently, I've had to address one of those: work wear.
As I've explained before, most of my work (it's sort of freelance and I also occasionally teach, sew samples for designer friend M and work on other projects) is altering dresses to fit for a bridal store. This involves fitting customers for lingerie and petticoats, getting them into their chosen dresses and discussing their alteration needs and wants. 
So, it involves a lot of maneuvering with large pieces of multi-layered polyester and nylon (that's what today's affordable wedding dresses are made of). So I think it's best to dress myself in cotton, to avoid literally shocking the customers. And I'm not even kidding. I wore my green cowl neck sweater, which is made from a wool/polyester blend, to work once and the static cling drove me crazy. 

So, I need more long sleeved cotton tops. Preferably not (all) in black. 

This is the first one. I finished it a couple of weeks ago and it's in service already. I thought I would wait with posting it until I had another one but… eh… there are so many more interesting things to sew.

It is a simple, sort of semi-fitted, top with raglan sleeves and a V-neck. I had originally planned a band on the bottom and cuffs but decided it looked better without. 
It has a slight trumpet sleeve. Just enough to be noticeable at some angles, not enough to be annoying.
And the design allowed me to use up an oddly shaped scrap of that turquoise jersey which had been lying around for a long time.
It's comfortable, it doesn't look bad and it fulfills the role it was made for. So: it's a win! I just can't get very excited about it.

The great jumpsuit (and playsuit) tutorial

Well, you have spoken! When I asked what subject you wanted for a tutorial, there was a very clear majority for jumpsuits (although I plan on making a shelf bust tutorial in summer. I was quite impressed with Ms. Pollyanna still remembering that dress after such a long time).

It seems I have misunderstood the time table for Sew Grateful Week though. 'Sharing Resources Day' was yesterday. I don't think it makes much of a difference though. It's more about the spirit of sharing knowledge and skill.

Anyway, on to jumpsuits and their little sisters, the playsuits. I have noticed there is a bit of confusion about the term 'playsuit'. It is often applied to short legged jumpsuits but also sometimes to 1950's sets of shorts and tops. That's not the kind of playsuit I'm talking about here though.

There are many different kinds of jumpsuits and I will discuss the varieties one by one. There are two things they all have in common though: 1 Torso length is a major issue. That's what I'll discuss below. And 2 You should make the closure at center front. A side zip won't work because you can't get out of the garment by pulling it up over your head. You really need to make a closure which will allow you to get your whole body through the opening at the top. In theory, a back zipper is possible as well but because you will need to open it for bathroom breaks that may not be so practical.
You have to think about the closure when drafting. You don't need extra width for a central (blind or visible) zipper but for a button front, you need to make an extension of two centimeters past center front for the length of the closure (excluding seam allowance).

Like this. In both cases, you should make a facing as well.

I think this may be the kind of jumpsuit most of you will be interested in:

With a waist seam and a fitted bodice. Depending on your choice of bodice and trousers it can look 40's, 50's or just elegant. 
You can use slopers to draft this jumpsuit but you don't have to. If you don't have a sloper and/or don't feel like having to consider and draft all design details like collar, sleeves and pockets, you can pick any bodice from a dress with a waist seam and add high waisted trousers or shorts. 
As with all pattern making, make sure the patterns you use are tried and tested.

You can't just connect the bodice and trousers like you would for a dress. That would cause those notorious length issues. You need to add extra length in the body of the jumpsuit to be able to do things like sit down or reach your arms up.

In this style, the extra length is added to the trousers. My pattern making book tells to add "between 3 and 10 cm" at the waistline of a jumpsuit. Which is too wide a margin to be helpful. I've tried and tested this in my own jumpsuit and I found out that 3 cm often isn't enough. 
For a jumpsuit like this, based on trousers with a normal, fitted crotch, I add 5 cm. Do this by moving tracing the pattern and tracing the tops of front and back again, 5 cm higher but with the center front and back lined up with the original center front and back. Merge the side seams gradually into the original side seams but make sure you don't narrow the pattern pieces at the (new or old) hipline.
Then, you have to make sure the waistlines of top and bodice match. Usually, you will find that the trouser waistline is smaller than the bodice waistline. Stick with the wider one. That tends to mean you lose the front dart in the trousers.
You can make scoop or slant pockets in the trousers.

This is a closely related style. horizontal seam below the waist, (semi) fitted bodice. 
For this one, you can use a pattern for a (semi) fitted top or dress without a waist seam. The same rules apply as for the previous jumpsuit. No length is added to the bodice, which extends to about 8 to 10 cm below the waist. Add 5 cm at the tops of front and back trousers (the top of which should be at the same level below the waist). Make sure the width of bodice and trousers is the same at the seam line.

Then, we get to the style which you see most in RTW.

The loose jumpsuit with elastic or a drawstring at the waistline. The reason you see this one so much is that it's a lot easier to fit. The style is supposed to be baggy, so extra length is the body doesn't attract attention and you can kind of regulate it with the gathering at the waist. 

I don't know why this image keeps uploading all blurry. It isn't like that in Illustrator or Photoshop. I've tried again and again to get it right but nothing works. I'll try again tomorrow.

To make this, you either widen sloper bodice and trousers or you use a loose fitting top and bottom. In both cases, you add the usual amount of length at the top of the trousers but also 3 to 5 cm at the bottom of the bodice.

When sewing, you can either sew elastic to the waist seam allowance after sewing the waist seam or you can create a casing for elastic or a drawstring. Because of the loose fit, you don't have to make such a long closure in a jumpsuit like this. A zip or row of buttons can stay above with waistline so it doesn't interfere with the gathers. 

You can also design this type of jumpsuit to have the gathers at another level than with waist but in that case, I don't recommend using tight-ish elastic. That would creep to the waist. 

When sewing any of these jumpsuits, construct top and bottom separately apart from the from opening on the fitted styles, then sew the waist seam and then finish front and make the closure (on the fitted styles) or insert elastic or drawstring (in the loose fitting jumpsuit).

Now, only one style remains. And this is one I haven't successfully made myself. Not yet. 

A jumpsuit without a waist seam. You may think this is how overalls (and other jumpsuits made for dirty work) are usually shaped. Some are but certainly not all because this is not a style which suits itself to economical cutting. 

To make this style, you have to extend the center front line on the trousers and trace the bodice with its center front on that line. You have to leave at least 5 cm between both waistlines. Do the same at the back. This puts the back bodice at an angle. Measure the side seams on both pieces. They have to be the same length. If they're not, adjust the position of the bodice pieces to make the side seams match. Just make sure that the total amount of length added to the crotch seam (front and back combined) is still 10 cm. 

All measurements described here are for use with normal trousers which are fitted at the crotch. If you use a style with a lowered crotch line, like some belt pleated trousers or culottes you could get away with adding less. Although, to preserve the look of the trouser style, I would still add 5 cm unless I was dealing with trousers with a seriously low crotch, like the hareem pants which were in fashion a couple of years ago. 
The added length at the waist will make the trousers longer. However, if that is possible with the style of trousers you're using I would recommend only taking away the excess length when hemming the legs as the very last step in construction. It's only then that you can see how the legs behave when you wear the jumpsuit.

I hope my explanation will help you make some jumpsuits of your own. As ever, if you do, I'd love to hear about it (or better yet, see it) and if you have any questions, just let me know.

Eye candy?

Did last night's episode of The Great British Sewing Bee spook you?
For those of you who haven't seen it yet: I hope it's not to much of a spoiler if I tell you the 'theme' was print matching.
As any sewer knows, matching prints can be quite a challenge and, predictably, some contestants really struggled. For those and for anyone who feels intimidated by matching prints, I'd like to present this picture as a bit of encouragement:

I saw this dress in a museum today. It was in the exhibit about the iconic Swedish brand Marimekko (mostly known for their prints) which is held at the Kunsthal in Rotterdam (a museum which is basically an empty box which is filled with five different exhibitions. Subjects range from contemporary art and design to ancient history and anything in between).

(Oops, what a silly mistake. Of course Marimekko is Finnish, not Swedish. I knew that and it was pretty clearly stated in the information at the exhibition. I guess this should teach me not to write blog posts when I'm tired…)

The Marimekko exhibit was fairly small and consisted of printed fabric and garments. Some of those, especially those made from thickish woven cotton, looked quite well made and were great examples fashion from their era (mostly the 1960's and 70's). 

This dress was one of the few made from jersey. The print is so far off along the front closure that I stopped to check whether or not it was intentional, a design element. However, I convinced that it isn't. This garment is just plain badly made. Not just has there not been any attempt at print matching, least one of the front halves isn't even cut on grain… 

Don't get me wrong, I'm not writing this to be negative about Marimekko or about the display at the museum. I just think it's a nice reminder that even internationally renowned brands don't always get it right.

In fact, most of the garments on show used the prints in rather fabulous ways.

Like this dress: he top part is pintucked which works very well with the stripes.

And if you like fashion, you'll probably also like one of the bigger exhibitions which is held at the Kunsthal right now: S.H.O.E.S. 

It's all about ladies' footwear from about 1900 until today… 

That 50's dress...

 I've just finished my plaid flannel dress! 
In the end, it turned out I had just enough fabric to give it a full circle skirt, so I did. Then, I left it to hang for a week before hemming. To deal with 'growing' on the bias.
Today, in what was otherwise a rather busy weekend, I found enough time to check and adjust the skirt length, hem the dress and have some pictures taken.

Despite the fact that it may soon be too warm to wear this dress, I'm happy with it.
My new sloper provides quite a bit more ease in the chest (which makes sense because that's where my measurements changed the most) but I think that helps to suggest an hourglass silhouette. 

Like I explained before, I shaped the bodice with pleats instead of darts. At the front, all shaping is done with those deep pleats from the shoulder which, because they line up with the front overlap, also look a bit like a collar. 
At the back, there is a row of small pleats at the waistline and I kept the shoulder dart and moved it to the center back seam. 
When I started sewing, I wasn't quite sure how well this pleated bodice would keep its shape, so I made a sleeveless lining with regular darts stabilize it. Now, I think it may not have been needed but it also provides a nice clean finish.

I cut the bodice pieces to match the plaid on the outer arm seam. That worked fairly well even though I had to alter the sleeves when I found out that the elbow darts had somehow ended up way too low and the sleeves were too wide (this fabric has more 'give' than muslin, so that must have been part of the trouble. I may also not have paid enough attention to the position of the elbow dart when trying on the toile).

There is a hidden zipper, to allow the dress to be opened at and below the waist (not unimportant to get in and out of it). Normally, I would have put that zipper at the side but in this case, I couldn't do that. To make it possible to match the plaid in the skirt, I cut the front as a perfect half circle and the back as two perfect quarters… And as a result, the skirt side seams don't meet the bodice side seams because the back bodice is narrower at the waist than the front. So, I put a blind zipper in the center back seam, from about 12 cm above the waist to 10 cm below. It works just fine and zipper pull doesn't attract attention, hidden as it is on that pleated back.

Oh, and there are pockets in those skirt side seams. 

I've missed circle skirts!

It's all in the bag

My beloved old coat isn't the only trusty, much-used item which is dying… My favorite bag seemed to be going through the same, slow process.

I'm sure I've made a blog post about this bag just after I finished it, but I can't find it now. So, let me tell you that the leather always had a bit of a battered look. I made it from an old motorcycle jacket (which was given to me by a friend). The leather looked nicely worn but was still quite sturdy. I used one of the pockets on the front of the bag. 
Other than that, it was a pretty basic, rectangular bag with a zipper closure and shoulder strap. 

Over the past months, I had noticed that the corners were starting to wear out (unfortunately, demands of pocket placement had forced me to use a thinnish bit of the leather there).

And the stitching of the top panel broke at one end (probably just from pulling at the zipper again and again and again). Because it didn't go past the corners, it wasn't a big problem and it would have been almost impossible to fix because I put in grommets at the corners after sewing this bit.

But then, about two weeks ago, the zipper suddenly got stuck without reason whenever I tried to open the bag. This annoyed me for a while until the day that no amount of fiddling would suffice to convince it to open anyway. The zipper pull came off. I had to cut the zipper tape to open the bag.
That was the end.

If the zipper hadn't failed, I would have continued to use this bag but now that it has, I don't think it's worth repairing. In fact, I don't think I could because of those grommets I mentioned above. 

I'm sewing a new bag now. The shape is, again, quite simple but instead of old leather clothing, I'm now using bits of leather which had a previous life colour samples for a furniture store. 
Which means it's thick leather. My sewing machine handles it very well except at those points where two seams have to be sewn to each other, so it has to sew through eight layers of the stuff.
And to do the machine justice, the side seams went fine. The leather on the top is a bit thinner which must have helped. It's just those cross seams on the bottom (only one sewn yet in these pictures) which were tricky.

When sewing leather, I usually glue the seam allowances down. With thin leather, you have to be really careful it won't show on the outside. With this stuff, it's pretty difficult to make them stick, even if you let the glue dry while weights keep the seam allowances in place (if you're interested, my tips for sewing leather are here. And I can add that with the top feed option on my sewing machine, I don't have to resort to stitching through tracing paper).

I like where this bag is going. It will, of course, get a zipper and a lining and it will be worn folded over, like this, hanging from a shoulder strap. Now, I'm just wondering whether or not to look for a better matching zipper and, obviously, I'm pondering the old question: Copper or silver? ('old' look, so slightly blackened, copper or shiny silver, that is)
What do you think?