UFO. Probably the most surprising term an unsuspecting individual can come across on a sewing blog. Of course, most blog readers are well-versed in the lingo but just in case: In the sewing blogosphere, UFO means Un-Finished Object.
I tend to take pride in not making them. I make something or I don't. Starting and then stopping half-way through is not what I do. I think that attitude is a result of being a pattern maker. It's very understandable for a seamstress to get disillusioned if the project she (or he) has worked so hard on doesn't fit. Or doesn't suit him or her. If you make your own patterns and have done so long enough to have a reasonable idea of what suits you, that's different.
And yet, of course I'm not immune to the occasional failure.
Last year, I wanted to make a red dress, a dress with gathers, loosely inspired by the styles of the 1940's.
I managed to find a fabric in a tone of red which actually suits me (most don't). A cotton with a nice, soft hand which made it very suitable for this design. The quality of the fabric wasn't great but you can't have everything, can you?
I made my design, a wrap dress with ray-of-the-sun gathers. I tried to be clever with it too and made a skirt which can't be blown open by a gust of wind. Only the sleeves weren't drafted straight away. With those, I waited to see how the dress would look and how the fabric would really behave.
After that, I did the hard work, gathering, fusing and sewing. Then, I tried the dress on... And I wasn't impressed. It just didn't seem very flattering. And there was no real way to fix it.
I put the dress aside and worked on other things. In fact, I didn't look at it for a whole year. Until this year, when I got once more interested in gathered designs. I tried the UFO on again... And it didn't seem so unflattering now.
I decided I could at least try and finish my red dress. It only needed sleeves and a hem.
And this is it. Red fabric, wrap style, gathers, flutter sleeves.
Not so bad after all.
And just in case you were wondering about that clever skirt design of mine, this is it:
The over- and underlapping parts of the skirt are connected. It's just one big, wide skirt that folds back on itself. The bodice has a normal overlap.
It makes for a dress that's easy to wear. I could even ride a bicycle in this one.
It's still a look I have to get used to but I'm glad I finished this dress. I think I'll enjoy wearing it.
Gathers seem to be very much on my mind these past days...
I have changed my plan for the orange crepe and am now using it for the EvaDress 1946 dress with asymmetric gathered design. It's about half-way done, I think.
But that's not the only thing: I'm also thinking about all the other gathered designs I could make... I have two old Vintage reproduction Vogue patterns and there are some real vintage designs from the late 1930's in La Femme Elegante and from the 1940's in Bella and Beyer Mode and from the 1950's in the Frohne book I bought recently. And then there's the stuff I could draft myself...
So many options!
Oh, and then there's that one UFO in my sewing room. A wrap dress with gathers on which I got started last year. I put it aside back then because I didn't really like it. It stayed on the end of the ironing board almost a year and I just tried it on again. And guess what? I don't see any reason not to like it anymore. It still needs sleeves and a hem and then I'll finally have a red dress!
And then, I've started to use Pinterest the way other people do, by pinning from other boards and the internet instead of just uploading pictures from my own vintage magazines. And many of the things I've been pinning recently include gathered designs:
From simple ones like this lovely summer dress,
To complicated designs like the Hattie Carnegie dress,
And loads of gorgeousness by Madame Gres.
This may just be my year of gathered designs...
