And here is my new robe!
It's a very rainy and cloudy day, so conditions for pictures were far from perfect but at least today, I could ask E to help me with them.
This is my second project for this year's Vintage Sewing Pattern Pledge. As a 1950's design, it doesn't exactly meet my intention to explore new periods of vintage fashion but it was made using a new-to-me pattern system. Lutterloh. I already showed you the pattern and the special ruler in an earlier post, and described how to use it.
It wasn't difficult to use but of course, I didn't really have a clue about the size and fit the resulting pattern would give me. Luckily, this design only has one piece which has to be fitted close to the body, the upper bodice and skirt and loose shapes with gathers at the joining seams.
The fabric I used is a cotton jersey/sweatshirt fabric with a bit of stretch horizontally. I would have liked to give you some clue about how much fabric you need for this design, but I'm afraid my experience won't be of much use: I had four meters of this fabric which was enough, I even had a triangular piece left over. However, this was a tube knit which helped with the lay-out because I could cut pieces on the fold on either side and, most importantly, it was extra wide, about 190 cm wide.
In the picture, there is a frill along the neckline which I didn't make. I'm not a big fan of frills. Instead, I cut a separate facing to finish that neckline. For the closure, I used jersey snaps instead of buttons because they suit this material better. And I only put them in the waist piece, like in the drawing. On the pattern, there are four button positions marked on the waist piece and four on the skirt. I think this looks better and I don't really need a closure on such a full skirt of a garment which is only meant for indoor wear.
To fit the robe, I constructed upper bodice, waist piece and skirt separately, made the gathered bits and pinned the whole thing together. In the pattern, there are darts sort of sketched on the waist pieces (sketched because there are not points or numbers with them). I had marked those on my pattern but because my fabric has stretch, I thought I might get away with fitting the waist pieces at the side seams (which looks more like the illustration anyway...). I took in about 4 cm at each side but I don't really blame the pattern for that. After all, it prescribed darts and it was meant for a non-stretch fabric. I could have fitted closer but I wanted the end result to be comfortable and not too pull at the front closure. And with wide kimono sleeves like this, fitting their bottom edge closely to the body and limit your range of movement.
Those sleeves were the only other thing I changed: I wondered about the 'bulge' shape on the upper arm seam but that is a design feature so I kept it. However, the sleeves (maybe, again, partly due to my fabric choice) were a bit wide at the wrists so I took them in 3 cm on the under arm seam (tapering to nothing at the curve of that seam).
I used fusible interfacing for knit fabrics on all facings and made a simple machine hem. I had cut the skirt pieces with 5 cm extra for the hem (just to be on the safe side) but I ended up cutting off a little more than that and I still have a 5 cm hem. So, as far as I can tell, I have no reason to worry about Lutterloh patterns being too short for me because I'm a bit smaller than their 'standard' size (94 cm bust). Which is a little bit of a surprise to me because the Dutch 1950's patterns I've used where usually intended for slightly shorter ladies (I'm 1.67 which is very average now).
All in all, this is an interesting garment. That huge sweeping skirt gives it a bit of drama even in such a casual fabric. 10-year-old me would have loved something like this to play princess in, although I guess she would have wanted it in pink.
(by the way, they back skirt is pictured without a seam and that is how I cut it. However, it's 160 cm at its widest point so you couldn't cut it like that on the straight grain in a normal fabric. And the front skirt pieces are a lot wider that half of the back so you would even need at least 140 cm wide fabric to cut those on grain)
It's comfortable, oddly elegant and ideal for snuggling up with a good book.
Today, I've finally started on my first Lutterloh project. I already wanted to sew from these books for last year's Vintage Sewing Pattern Pledge but didn't get round to it.
I know I said that I wanted to sew from my late 1940's book (as part of the Pledge, because I mostly sew 1950's stuff) and I even had a nice, basic, dress picked out but... Well... Some things just want to be made more than others.
I'm making this (on the right):
It's from the 1954 book and in the text, Lutterloh describes it as "a decorative robe for the spoiled taste"... I don't think my version will be that spoiled. I'm making it from a bright mid-blue cotton jersey/sweatshirt fabric (with very little stretch).
I just really like the notion of a robe with a massive skirt.
There is actually a real need for this. I made a robe in coral red toweling last year. It's very nice and I've worn it a lot but I always knew the fabric wasn't of particularly good quality. By now, the seat is pretty worn. So much that it's see-through... So, I obviously need to replace this very nice thing.
I bought this blue fabric with that purpose in mind although at the time, I planned on re-using the pattern I had made for the coral red robe.
Last week, I suddenly remembered this Lutterloh pattern and decided on that instead.
It is my first time working with this system. Lutterloh is a fairly well-know enlarge-to-size system which started in the 1930's (as far as I know) and is still being made.
You get a book with pictures of the designs and at the back of the book are the patterns in miniature, looking like this.
To enlarge them to your own size, you tie a special ruler, which comes with the book, to the end of a tape measure (overlapping the first 8 centimeters). Then, you put the miniature pattern (which I scanned from the book and printed) on a big sheet of paper and tape it down. You prick a pin through the number of your bust measurement (or hip measurement for skirts) on the special ruler and than through the cross in each pattern piece. From there, you can turn it around and match every little line at the edge of the pattern. There's a number at each of them which tells you how many centimeters to add to place a point for your pattern. All you have to do is carefully lay out your tape measure in a straight line and make a dot at that number. Once you've transferred all the points, you can take away the tape measure and the miniature pattern and connect the dots. It wasn't difficult to do but I don't really believe this will magically generate a perfectly fitting pattern for each size and every shape, which is sort of suggested in the introduction.
I was initially worried about waist length (and, in this case, overall length) because I'm at the small end of normal ladies' sizes according to these companies. Frohne was pretty clear about which waist lengths came with which bust sizes and how and where to add or subtract length if you needed to.
However, when I measured myself and the top pattern pieces and held them up against my body, I thought it was going to be OK.
Because of that, I decided not make a muslin. After all, this was also a sale fabric, I know the piece won't be too short and only those waist pieces are closely fitted and those are small and could easily be re-cut if they don't turn out right.
I've cut my fabric and hope I can start sewing later tonight.
For the past two days, I've been pondering my options for the next Vintage Pattern Pledge item. I want to use my other pattern-enlarging-to-size system this time. You may be familiar with this one: Lutterloh.
I've seen it mentioned before on blogs and definitely on We Sew Retro so I assume this system has some international fans. The earliest publications I've read about (I haven't researched it, this is purely based on what other people blogged about) are from the 1930's. And it's still there. Unfortunately, that modern website doesn't have any information on the history of the brand but the system is still basically the same.
Like Frohne (which is, by comparison, probably no more than a short-lived competitor), Lutterloh offers its customers books with pictures of the designs and miniature patterns. To scale these up to size, Lutterloh relies on a special grading ruler.
This little thing. You have to attach a tape measure at one end, overlapping the 8. I'll take some pictures of how this works when I start on enlarging my pattern.
The system seems to rely on the idea that the human shape obeys certain rules, which has me a bit worried. This text comes from the introduction to the system in my books:
When a human being is fully grown, the most important measurements of his limbs barely change anymore. One will only, based on predisposition, get fatter or thinner. Every human being only gets 3.5 times as large as he was at birth. Per size, there are, on average, just 3 groups (not counting dwarfs and giants). To make the sewing patterns usable for these three groups, it is desirable for very slender tall people and very short fat ones to adjust for the differences in waist length, sleeve and skirt length by lengthening or shortening the pattern pieces.
Okaaayy. So according to Lutterloh, there are no different body types (since the rest of the text suggest that the three groups refer to 'tall', 'medium' and 'short')... And where does that "3.5 times" thing come from? I'm pretty sure everyone, as an adult, exceeds 3.5 times his or her birth weight and height.
And that was also all the information given about height adjustments. Basically, you should just figure it out as you go along. And then we should remember that making muslins was certainly not common practice in the past.
Of course, this system doesn't enlarge in the same way as Frohne so its 'false' shortening or lengthening might be less. I'll tell you when I find out.
So, now I just have to pick a pattern. I own three Lutterloh books, one from 1954 and two without date which overlap partly. Those two are definitely earlier. The designs there are an odd blend of 1940's and sort of 1950's which leads me to date them to 1947 or 1948. The time when the New Look was slowly gaining fashion ground.
Ideally, I want to make something which is not just nice but also appropriate for this time of year, a sort-of-new-to-me style and can be made in a fabric from my stash. And that wish-list makes things difficult.
For one, it basically rules out the many wonderful things in the 1954 book.
Even though I quite like this sporty little jacket...
Then, this dress became my favorite. Cute look and basic enough to make weirdness in the sizing easy to spot and fix. But really a summer dress.
So. Other options. I love these but I'm not so sure I've got the right fabrics for them.
Or of course, I could be sensible and make a blouse...
This one shouldn't even be on this list. It has plissé and that means it's impossible.
And how about this dress. A real 1940's look but not really 'me'.
I really don't know. Every time I look through the books again, something may leave the list and something else may be added. What do you think?
