Of sewing and inspiration...

There's finally real progress on the flounce dress. I re-designed and re-drafted the bodice, checked if it would fit on the fabric and then made a muslin to check the fit. When I was happy with it, I started cutting. 
As mentioned, the fabric is only 90 cm wide and the front skirt is asymmetrical, so I had to cut the entire dress out of a single layer of fabric. Fortunately, this particular check has a very small set (repeat) so I could do some check-matching but not as meticulous as I might have wanted.

And then, last evening, I could finally start sewing the real thing. I continued today and it's looking promising:

 Nice bodice...

And look, the lines meet at the front darts and I got them to run along the edges of collar pieces. I like that.

I even spent some time looking at button options. I even looked at some bigger buttons as well. I quite like both the 'aged' copper snaps and the semi-transperant plastic ones and tried some bigger buttons as well. In the end, I'll probably go for matte black ones after all. Those won't stand out as much and after all, I want the skirt to be the eye-catcher here.

Seeing the bodice like this, and trying it on, made me think of something else. 
The caraco. 
I don't know whether that name was also used in English, but back in 1956, Dutch ladies' magazines new a particular style of jacket by that name.

A caraco was a waist-length jacket with a semi-fitted shape. It usually had a single breasted closure, a high neckline with or without collar, no pockets and set-in sleeves, which were often less than full length. 

It was worn over dresses or skirts with tucked-in tops and wide, cummerbund-like belts. In any case, it was worn with full skirts.

The caraco was quite a trend that winter. I guess it was mostly meant for young women. At least it was shown, like in the picture here, as part of the modern young woman's wardrobe. 

It got me thinking. I don't really have a suitable jacket to go with my full skirts and I had been thinking about making one this winter. Maybe I should try a caraco...  

I hate it when that happens...

This morning, when I should be getting dressed, I tried on that dress muslin I made yesterday. I didn't take pictures because the fabric I used was a bit transparent. In general, the design worked well. It just required some little tweaks, like adjusting the elbow dart. The skirt seemed really promising, especially for that check fabric.

When I got home this afternoon, I was keen to start cutting the fabric. Because it was only 90 cm wide, I had to go with a single layer lay-out.
And then this happened:

There's no way I can get the other half of the bodice on there.
I really didn't like that. 
Of course, I could switch fabrics, but I was really looking forward to making that skirt in that fabric.

So, I spent this evening to re-doing the bodice design.
Now, I'm going to make something like this:

Button-down front, shirt collar, set-in sleeves. It should be a lot less fabric-consuming. I'm going to try it out tomorrow.
Wish me luck ;)

Working on it

I've been working on my first dress-with-flounce...
Yes, I may make more than one. There are just so many cool varieties. 

This dress, from 1951 (picture was published in Beatrijs magazine) is my main inspiration. Slim silhouette, random draping at the front which causes a flounce.  

This is my design: A similar skirt shape, the same fitted kimono sleeves but a surplice front with a shawl collar rather than a shirt-like bodice.

And this is the fabric I plan on using: cotton flannel with small, white on black, checks. I think this stuff will be very nice to wear when it gets too cold for cotton dresses. And it won't be too warm on all but the coldest days, like many woolen dresses. Of course, the checks present their on problems. I'm already obsessing over how and where to match them.

I spend some time on friday trying to drape something like this skirt, just to get an understanding of the shape. I used both an existing half circle skirt and a partial muslin I made with a pencil skirt back and different full skirt fronts. And I immediately came across a problem. On closer inspection, you can see a bit of hem sticking out on the far right, just below that horizontal tuck in the skirt. I tried to copy that only to find out it was impossible without creating some seriously wacky folds at the sides and back. There was only one explanation: this skirt is not one piece. The draped bit is a separate wrap-over bit. And because of the angle of the picture, you can't see the underskirt. 
I could do that, of course, but it's not what I wanted. And I may not have enough fabric for it.

So, I decided to make something more like this skirt, although I will still try to keep the slim silhouette and the tuck below the waistline. 
I've drafted the pattern today and was just now stitching up a muslin. I'll try it on tomorrow and tell you if it's any good.

A new obsession

It looks like I'm developing a new obsession this autumn: retro skirt flounces. I blame all those 1950's magazines I've been reading. 
You may be aware of this fashion feature because Peter posted about it last year.

Anyway, it was a bit of a trend in the 1950's and particular popular in 1949 and 1951.
The simplest versions are just shawls or sashes draped over simple dresses:

Usually the sashes in the same fabric as the dress or at least in the same colour and they are often kept in place with a belt.

More complicated versions have integrated draped sashes...

Sometimes tucked through parts of the skirt.

 Then, there are larger separate flounces on the dress.

And even apron-like bits (very popular in 1951), like the ones on the left and right in the picture below.

And draped overskirts, like the picture in the middle.

And then there are the asymmetrically draped skirts...

So many different options but nevertheless a number of similarities as well: Skirt flounces are mostly used on "dressy" day dresses, so the dresses usually don't have a lot of cleavage and they do have sleeves and a collar. The skirt is usually a narrow one, with the flounce just being a decorative element. 
I would really like to incorporate some kind of flounce in a dress of this autumn.  Although the sash option would be easiest, just a wriggle dress with a separate sash on a belt, I don't think I'll do that. I think I'm going to try and tinker a bit, based on the inspiration pictures in this post. I'd like to make the flounce in such a way that it is part of the actual skirt and provides some extra room for movement.
What do you think? Could a skirt flounce work for autumn/winter 2013?

Even more twisting

We all know the twist designs Burda and other pattern magazines put out from time to time. They're often popular and that's no surprise: When well designed, twist designs can be very flattering for a whole range of body shapes. 

Which also goes some way to explaining why the twist tops are the most-made designs from the Pattern Magic books (judging from what I come across on blogs and on Burdastyle). 

I've made tops and dresses with twist designs quite a lot: starting with this top way back in 2010, through to this one, this summer. And of course, I also made a top using Pattern Magic's Flip Turn (which is basically just a modified twist) and put a twist design of my own out as a free-to-download pattern on Burdastyle. What can I say? I guess I just like the look. And I especially like messing around with it, changing details and coming up with new versions.

In this past week, I made another one. The basic top is a fitted t-shirt with an extended shoulder. It has twists on the front, between the shoulder and chest and the collar has been pulled through the loops formed by those. 

It was an experiment, so I used a cheap fabric from the stash. Thin cotton jersey in that brown/olive tone I seem to find so much of. Fortunately, the colour suits me. It looks a bit crumbled in the pictures but I had been wearing that outfit all day.

The top came together pretty much as I had planned. I just had to improvise a bit with the collar. I had cut it to fit the V at center front but with the front seam sewn up, that made the neckline a bit too tight. So, I only stitched about a quarter of the center front seam and let the rest fall to the inside. Those pieces stay in place just fine, so I decided to leave it like that. 

I'm happy with how it turned out. I really like the shape of the neckline and it doesn't even tend to gape. And it also looks well tucked into the waistband of one of my 1950's style skirts.

We had great weather today so we took pictures on the balcony again. The sun was really nice but it made me squint in nearly every picture. At least in this one you can see the view.

His robe

Oh, I forgot. I did sew something in the past three weeks. A robe for E.
And don't worry, I don't expect this fairly thin cotton to keep him warm throughout the winter. He's got a perfectly fine robe made from thick toweling for that. This one is  meant for winter and those warm days in spring and autumn. Like the ones we're have now.

I made this robe, as mentioned before, from a shirt weight cotton plaid fabric which turned out to have some stretch to it. 

It's an A-line robe with fitted shoulders and sleeves with a normal, shaped sleeve head. It's got a shawl collar and pockets and it closes with a tie.

Normally, I would put the loops for a belt at the waistline. However, I know they felt too high on the very simple robe I had made for him before. So, I finished the robe, let E try it on and tell me where he wanted the belt. I marked the spot and sewed on loops at that height. Both at the side seams and at center back.

Oh, and here's a detail shot of that pocket. I managed to make the plaid sort of line up in the end. By the way, are you familiar with this type of pocket? It's essentially a patch pocket which is sewn into the side seams but it's sewn on from the inside. If you'd like, I can make a tutorial next time I make one of these.

Back with so many plans...

Hi everyone. I didn't mean to be absent for this long but it just sort of happened. Since I came back from holiday, things have been very busy at work  and I haven't been sewing for myself at all.
This week, things went quiet but I needed some time to catch up on things like eh... cleaning the house and ironing. Which didn't stop me from dreaming about autumn sewing, of course. Obviously, I will try to concentrate on using fabrics from the stash and as usual, I have so many ideas. 

A lot of the more interesting ones may not be appropriate to wear to work (just because they are too eye-catching not because they might be indecent or anything like that. When fitting a wedding dress, the bride has to be the star of the show, so I always try to dress kind of eh... normal for work) but I don't really mind.
Oh, and yes, that's how I sketch. In pencil on separate sheets of A4 paper. I don't sketch everything I plan and often only do so to record the idea. Just occasionally, I use sketching the way you're supposed to when designing: to compare options and develop my ideas.

I did finish a new top today. Another, different, twist design which I'm pretty happy with. I'll show it to you this weekend, because E's picture are usually much nicer than my tripod-and-self-timer versions.