5 May

This particular blog post is a little detour in honour of this day. In many countries, 5 May is VE Day, here in the Netherlands, we have a simpler name for it: Bevrijdingsdag (= Liberation Day). An apt name because it wasn't until the total surrender of nazi Germany that this country was liberated in its entirety.
Nowadays, there are two national holidays surrounding the date: There's a commemoration of those who lost their lives in armed conflicts on 4 May, and a 
celebration of freedom on 5 May.  
For this post, I wanted to share a little-known celebration of liberty from 1945 and the years immediately after that: The National Party skirt.

These patchwork skirts were made from scraps of fabric both to celebrate the liberation and to serve as lasting reminders of all the moments in one's life in which garments made from those fabrics had played a part (for those of you who read Dutch, here is a great article about these skirts on the Gemeentemuseum blog, with a picture of a skirt in their collection which is on display in the museum's central hall today).
There seems to be a bit of confusion about when these skirts were first made: According to the article I just mentioned, the National Institute came up with the idea to design something like this early in 1946. According to my period texts, and another part of the same article, women made these skirts in May 1945. All agree about the role of resistance heroine mrs. A.M. Boissevain-van Lennep in designing the skirt.  
I assume patchwork skirts were made in 1945 but the specific design with the orange triangles at the hemline was probably only introduced in 1946. The design was partially inspired by a British tradition to collect memories in a patchwork garment.
It is certain that many were made and many in the 'official' design.

In preparation of Liberation Day 1948, Libelle magazine wrote this:

Do you remember how we made a party skirt from all kinds of fabric scraps for the liberation festivities? Do you not have one yet? Than you should definitely make one this year. For the celebrations in honour of the 50-year jubilee of Her Majesty Queen Wilhelmina, we will wear these skirts in the parade which will take place in The Hague. There will be dances in the national party skirt and choirs will sing a "Skirt Song"
You too will want to wear a party skirt to express your happiness and gratitude.
So start on it now. All the scraps of fabric can come out of your sewing box, personal souvenirs, cherished memories: A piece of your wedding gown, a scrap from your little daughter's first coat, a corner of a table cloth from many years ago, a colourful kerchief.
From all these pieces, we make a harmonious whole, a symbol of  of our women's lives: Unity in plurality, new from old, building up from tearing down. And in the points at the hem of the skirt, we embroider the high points of our national existence: In the two points at the front the date of the liberation: 5 May 1945. On every next point, the year in which you have worn the skirt to celebrate that liberation. In the skirt itself, you can embroider the dates and memories of your own personal life.
When the skirt is finished, you can have it registered; it will get a stamp and will be entered in the register of skirts. This will enlarge the historical importance of the skirt. 
Mrs. A.M. Boissevain-van Lennep, Hondecoeterstraat 8, Amsterdam-Zuid, tel. 27342, will gladly provide you with all information about the "skirt project". You can also send your skirt to this address to be stamped. The register is located at the International Archive of the Women's Movement, Keizersgracht 264, Amsterdam. Registration costs f1,50.
And if you don't have time to make a skirt, an apron is much more quickly made and will also look festive. 

Structural progress

With the inner layer of the bodice (of the dress I'm making to wear to a friend's wedding on Friday) finished, I decided to direct my attention towards the skirt and bolero. 

You see, for the bodice I will use a technique of which I have often seen the results and which I understand very well in theory but which I have never tried yet: Draping fabric over a shaped under-layer. It would be almost impossible to determine the size and shape of those pieces beforehand. In fact, in all the wedding dresses I've seen with such designs, the draped fabric was usually sticking out irregularly in the seam allowances. So even in mass production, they don't pre-shape those pieces completely.
So, it seemed wise to cut the other essential pieces before getting stuck in with this tricky process. I don't want to run out of fabric half-way through...

Anyway, I thought the bolero would take a lot of work to deal with issues of gaping edges and maneuverability but it was almost right after the first slap-dash draft. Based on the fit of the muslin, I narrowed the ends of the sleeves a little bit, but that was it. It's just one pattern piece with a fun bat-like shape and I plan to line it.

For the skirt, I wasn't sure. I had two options in mind. Unfortunately, I can still only show you the faint pencil sketches:

Big flounce at the back,

or sort-of sarong-style front drape.
E said he preferred the second option and at first, I didn't agree. That peacock tail back just seemed so alluring...
Then, I started thinking. What would make more sense for a day which will include a lot of sitting and standing around talking to people? 
And yet, I tried a muslin for the back drape option. Maybe just because that 1950's dress looked so good with it...

The thing is, I know how a shape like the one in the sketch would be made using the conventional method of the wedding dress industry: It would be a straight skirt with a big godet at the back and a draped bit over the top. 
But I don't like that. I suppose I have a bit of a Bauhaus attitude to pattern making: I want there to be a real connection between form and function. 
And for this skirt, I kind of liked the idea of eliminating the side seams (even if it were only to avoid having to match them to the bodice side seams). And I had decided I didn't want an actual bow at center back. Too uncomfortable when sitting down. Oh, and to suit the style of the dress, there should definitely still be some draping at the front, like in the picture.
I tried to make a muslin combining all those requirements and it didn't look good at all. So, I got sensible and tried the other option. In this case, I thought tying a bow would be nice so I went with the ultimate style which combines a bow, draped detail and a way to add walking ease: Pattern Magic's knot design (from the first book).

I loosely followed the instructions for the knot dress but placed the knot half-way down on the left front dart. Because the dress will have a back zipper, the skirt had to have a center back seam and that is in fact the only full-length seam. 

I tried it out in some fabric which was left over from a skirt for my sister years ago. On me, the hem looked much more even but at least you can kind of see the effect like this. The knot creates random pleating at hip level which wraps to the back a little bit. There's a fairly deep pleat belong it which will allow me to walk without any trouble. 
Does it work? I've decided to go with it.

I have cut the fabric this afternoon: corselette pieces, bolero and skirt. 

A bit to my surprise, I only used about half of my fabric for the skirt and bolero (which have only one pattern piece each. I didn't plan for that, but I rather like it). So I certainly don't have to worry about having enough fabric for the draping on the bodice. 
Just to clarify: Because the skirt is asymmetric, I'm cutting in a single layer and I traced the sides of the skirt on different pieces of paper but the open space between the straight edge is actually part of the pleat.

I hope I'll get some of the real sewing done tomorrow.

The foundation

In fact, I'm pretty pleased with my progress so far, even though I haven't constructed any part of the actual dress yet. I'm getting a pretty clear idea about how I'm going to make it and that makes a huge difference.

I've started at the beginning: By making the fitted bodice with bra-style cups which forms the basis for this design. 

This is a bit of a cross-over between clothing and lingerie patterns so I thought I might talk you through the process I used.
The cup pattern pieces come from my normal bra patterns. A horizontally seamed cup for a strapless design with a curved top edge.
I drafted the bodice from scratch. That seemed easier than fiddling with a body wear sloper with negative and a normal body sloper with positive ease.

To do this you need just a few measurements: 
- Waist circumference
- Distance from the waist to the underwire of your bra. To measure this, tie a ribbon or a piece of elastic around your waist, tightly so it automatically comes to rest at the narrowest point, and measure up from there.
- Underbust circumference
- Then choose how far the bodice to reach below your waist and measure your body's circumference at that level (the ribbon is helpful with this as well)

Then, you can draft the pattern like this:

- Draw a horizontal line the length of half the 'hip' measurement and square up from either end and the middle. Also draw in the waist and underbust height.
- Place the center front of your bra band pattern along the center front line and the bottom of the curve for the cup on the underbust line and trace the bridge, cup curve and beginning of the top of the band.
- Mark 1/4 of the underbust circumference from either side on the underbust line. Square up to the tracing of the bra band and shape the top edge of the bodice.
- For the waist shaping, divide the waist measurement by 2 (because we are working on a half pattern here) and then by 12. Take out 3/12 on either side of the center line, this will become the side seam. Then take out 2/12 in the front panel and 4/12 in the back.
- Connect all the points you've measured out and don't forget to mark the straight grain (perpendicular to the waistline). When cutting, mark the waistline on all pieces and match those marks when sewing.

Of course, a pattern like this may need quite a bit of fine-tuning so I decided to sew it up to try the fit, using the fabric I plan to use for this layer. 
I made the cups from lingerie foam (I think you have to use a material which can stand up on its own for this shape) in my usual way and sewed them into the bodice. 
For fitting purposes, I put a separating zipper at the back.

And this is the fit, with underwires but without boning (and pushed up weirdly at the bottom because of the fabric I put around my hips for the picture). Not too bad, if I say so myself. Later, I sewed poly boning to half of it and it looked even better (I plan on using spiral steel for the real thing). 
Based on this try-out I've made a few changes: I cut the pieces with seam allowance on the bottom but I like the length like this, so I will add 1.5 cm. I really didn't like the way the cup and the top of the bodice look like completely different things where they meet at the side. I raised that point by 1 cm to make them join more smoothly. And finally, I shaved of a couple of millimeters at and just below the waist at the side seam and front dart, because it was a bit loose in those places. 
After that, I spend a lot of time thinking about the order of construction and the way to finish this thing, with the draped fabric on top, neatly. But more about that later.   

P.S. This would also work well as a pattern for a lingerie corset. Just make the center back panel a bit wider compared to the side back, then narrow it about 10% for negative ease. Cut that part out of power net and use something like sturdy satin or lace over non-stretch net for the rest.

On the fast track...

As of yesterday, I've dropped all other sewing projects I was thinking about or even working on. Some things take precedence. 

On Monday, we got a message from a friend asking whether or not we were coming to her wedding. We had never received the invitation. Thank you Dutch mail!

Obviously, we wanted to come to the wedding and luckily, E could arrange things at work. So, now I have to make sure I have something to wear on 8 May...

As I have mentioned before, the general dress sense here in the Netherlands is not very formal so I could probably get away with wearing some season-appropriate dress I already have. Especially if I take care to pick one which hasn't been worn around friends' parties. But what's the fun in that? If there is ever an occasion for something new and fabulous, it's a wedding, right? And this particular bride is a glamorous dresser in her own way.

I've been thinking about it for two days and I now have three options, with varying degrees of a eh... work intensity. 

The simplest option is this: 

Sort of late 50's early 60's in style. A skirt with box pleats supported by a petticoat and a simple, kimono sleeved top with a slight scoop or a V-neck. Skirt in bright pink raw silk, top in black or grey jersey.

The second option would require serious investment of sewing time. And of time otherwise dedicated to other things. On the other hand, it's something I've been thinking about for a while: A party dress in which I can combine skills and knowledge acquired in my normal sewing and pattern making, lingerie making and working in bridal stores. 

So far, it wasn't a single clear-cut design. I just know it would include a corset-type bodice, with separate cups, draping over that and a slim skirt with some kind of flounce. I also planned on making it lace up at the back and spent quite some time thinking about solutions to have that and still be able to put it on on my own (which means I would need an extra closure. Like the busk on a corset. I'm just not going heavy enough with the construction of this to have it support a busk and there are super-strong zippers but I don't have any).

 I have a very humble, boring grey fabric in my stash which would I always had in mind for this. Plain fabric makes a design stand out and I actually look quite good in grey.

And of course, if I end up making a strapless dress, it would need some kind of cover-up (most modern wedding gowns are strapless and not all brides cover up for ceremony and/or dinner, but the bride is the star of the show and perfectly allowed to do whatever she likes. A guest, on the other hand had better stick to some traditional rules).

And then, I started to doubt the idea of a basically strapless design for me. And went to have a look at my collection pictures from vintage magazines on Pinterest. 

This is pretty close to what I have in mind.

And I've always loved this one... just a little less asymmetric. 

Or something with a great collar, like this. Just as a dress.

This is a much simpler shape, but a great neckline.

And I actually really like this too. I'm just not so sure it's great for my fabric and I think that decorated cleavage might be both impractical and a bit too attention grabbing...

And then, I found this picture. 

Swoon. 

Just for the record, although it looks white in the black-and-white picture, this is described as an evening gown. 

It doesn't look like a difficult shape. And I've seen a really nice lace at the market which has a slightly 'furry' texture. I've been eyeing up the grey version for while. It could be lovely for a design like this, but then at a shorter length and maybe with not quite such a full skirt. Grey lace with a pale pink slip...

Further considerations... Well, I could buy that lace this Friday which would be in time but it would be very nice to use fabric from my stash... And I've been thinking on-and-off about option 2 for about a year now... And somehow both dresses I have made to wear to friend's weddings before, and two of these options, are grey. Not all the same shade but still... 

Yesterday, that last consideration and the wish not to overwhelm myself, almost convinced me to go for option 1. 

Today, I was doodling not-strapless options for 2, which are nice but immediately because more normal and look like they would require a more interesting fabric.

And then, I decided to try the look. I stuffed one edge of the grey fabric into the top of a RTW corselette to see how such a shape worked on me. With and without covered shoulders.

Of course, these are horrible pictures. Bedroom mirror selfies... But they show something. I can wear a shape like this. 

Why not go for it? I think I'm going to try. I will start by building the bodice, and then drape the fabric over it. I'm still a bit in doubt over skirt options: a flounce at the side front, sarong style, or at center back, sort of like a bustle. I won't do the lacing. It complicates too many other things. And I think I will make a separate little bolero to go with it. 

I'm going to give it a go. I'll get started tomorrow! 

That 1950's suit...

Finally! My suit is finished, I've had a haircut, it has stopped raining and E is at home and willing to take pictures: It's time to reveal my new suit.

I've talked about it here before. I drafted my own jacket pattern based on this image, from an issue of Libelle magazine from 1956 and added a half circle skirt which seemed to suit the look. 

Then, I decided to add a hat and after some experimentation with view C, I went with the pillbox which is view D and E from this pattern, V8008.

The jacket isn't heavily tailored. I used a very lightweight fusible (a very thin knit interfacing) throughout, just to give this odd fabric a bit of stability. Making it more rigid would have helped to get that perfect period look but would have seriously compromised wearability. The way it is now, it may crumple when I make big movements but I will be able to make those which means it can work as a real garment, not just an occasional costume.
And because I would like to wear it like some of these vintage suits or two piece dresses were, with not a lot under it, I lined it with thin, smooth cotton rather than with normal lining material. 

The fabric is a bit of an oddity. It looks like tweed, a herringbone weave in black and grey. But it's linen. For that reason, it has some odd properties. Linen, thickish but loosely woven. It's stiff and limp at the same time. In combination with my favorite fusible, it behaves very well. Without it, it's a different matter.  
I'm less than pleased with the way it worked for the skirt. It sort of folds in at the sides, even after hemming. It's wearable but not what I planned. In retrospect, I think I should have cut the skirt in four or even six gores, each with the straight grain along the centers. 

For the hat, I used the same fabric but interfaced it with a mid-weight fusible cotton (although for the bow at the back, I used the same stuff I used in the jacket). I lined it with thin synthetic felt. And to keep it on my head, I used two hairpins put through thread loops at the front sides and one on the back.

All in all, I am quite happy with my suit. And if some element of it ends up annoying me after all, I have enough fabric left to replace it ;)

Years in fashion, in the 1930's

Today, I thought I would show you some more from my collection of vintage (sewing) magazines. And try and show one of the reasons why I love having several issues of the same magazine, over a span of time. 
You see, when you read about fashion history, it's all too easy to start thinking there's one distinctive look per decade. One silhouette by which you can easily recognize it. It's easy to start believing that because there is some truth to it. Looking back, there are distinct shapes which belong to, roughly, each decade of the 20th century. In some cases, there is a clear starting date for something new, like the introduction of the New Look for spring 1947. 
However, things are, of course, more complicated than that. New silhouettes don't just spring into existence (even the New Look had careful precursors and its acceptance was slow and gradual), they can be a clear departure from what went before but more often, they evolve slowly from it. In the broad gestures of a short history of fashion, it's easy to overlook that process. When you are faced with a stack of magazines from the time itself, the little changes come to the foreground. The magazines compare the fashion they bring to their readers with that of last season or last year so they point out and magnify changes we, outsiders, might not even have noticed.

To give you a bit of an idea about this, I've put some images from the early 1930's side-by-side. All are from the sewing magazine Gracieuse. These are the numbers 8 (the magazine was published twice a month, so that's the one for the second half of April) from 1930, 1932 and 1933 (I thought I had included 1931 as well but it seems I forgot). I've combined pictures for similar kinds of clothes, really different things which are not featured in the other years are shown separately.

From 1928 to 1930, the cover is printed in colour, with a photograph or drawing on pale blue, from 1931 onwards there's a big full-colour fashion drawing on a white background. The great thing about these covers is that they are the only visual information about the colours fashionable at the time.

Simple day dresses. Please ignore the fact that only in 1932, they decided to look ahead to the warmer weather to come. 
Here, you can see how the silhouette of 1930 is still in transition. It's not a real 1920's style anymore but those belts and horizontal seams are not at the natural waistline. Two years later, they are. And a year after that, sleeves get more attention and more decoration and shoulders are slightly more angular (also in the style of illustration)

In the 1932 issue, they also included some more glamorous dresses, those with stripes are on the left and those with dots on the right. These show some of the flamboyance 1930's fashion is also known for, next to the tailored styles of the sportier dresses and suits. Oh, and the elbow at the join actually belonged to a lady near the fold of the page but the light on her was so bad I cropped the image. 

Walking outfits. From 1930 and 1932. There are dresses with some jackets for 1930 and suits with coats and blouses for 1932. I'm pretty sure that's just the choice made in each magazine and not representative of all walking clothes worn in those years.
But look at the difference in skirt length! And again, there's a slight shirt in the style of the drawing: From very straight-line ladies, to ones with slight curves.  
And a major change in hats, in this case a transition from something which looks very much like a 1920's cloche to a fairly typical 1930's hat shape.

This particular issue of Gracieuse was a pretty sporty one in 1930: There were also tennis dresses! 

And in 1933, there was a double page feature with sports and weekend clothes. I particularly like this one because it includes what look like real trousers. 

So, just a couple of looks you might have wanted to make 82, 83 or 85 years ago... Any preferences?

Experiment in hat making

It seems like a long time since I posted a proper, well-considered story. You know, a blog post with a head and a tail. You'll have to excuse me once more. This is another update of random thoughts and project ideas. 

I have been sewing. I've finished my suit. There is still an issue with the skirt, which I blame almost entirely on the fabric. 
But, with regards to hat making, I gave up on the view of V8008 I started out with. Vogue's shape didn't even approach my head shape (and I don't have a small head, so I'm really surprised at that floppy disk this pattern created) and I didn't like the way those petals looked. Rather that taking all the binding off, tinkering even more with the shape and still end up with a look I didn't like, I cut my losses and went for the pillbox instead. The little pillbox in this pattern is one of those hats that has to perch on you head so there's preciously little fitting involved. It came together easily and will make its debut on the blog with the rest of the suit (in coming weekend, I think).

Flush with this success, I started thinking about other hat styles I might be able to make. (Last year, I considered signing up for a real hat making course, to learn how to block felt and built hats from braids of straw. Budget didn't allow for it, but I'd still love to do it some day).
Some of the vintage magazines in my collection contain patterns for cut-and-sew hats. And then there was the cut-and-sew fedora which I had bought at H&M (in the sale, for 1 or 2 euros) years ago with the purpose of taking it apart and using the pattern.

I've started out with that one.
Unfortunately, I'm well overdue for a hair cut, so all hats look silly right now because they push my fringe over my eyes. Which is why I'm not modeling the hat right now. 
The original was a bit big (sized M/L, for a 56 to 60 cm head. Mine is 56 or 57 depending on the desired position of the hat) so I took it in a little bit. I used a cotton/linen blend fabric of which I have a lot and fused all the pieces with mid-weight fusible cotton. The original had an interfacing which seemed to be of a similar weight and this stuff worked well for the pillbox.

With the hat finished, I think I should have gone for the heavy weight fusible cotton instead. At least in this fabric. This hat is softer and more floppy than the RTW original and I don't like how that makes it behave. When put on, it gets a sort of dent at the point where it leaves the head which rather spoils the silhouette. And the crown looks a bit too high anyway. 

It's not good but not unwearable. I've made my changes on the pattern and have every intention of trying again. It could also be a very nice hat in winter, made from one of my beloved tweed fabrics...

And then, there are the vintage hat designs. There are two which immediately clamoured for attention in my memory:

This asymmetric cloche from 1928, to be made with or without attached scarf (which is a cool idea but I think the hat would be more practical to me without) for Gracieuse magazine. I first picked this out for my 1920's longlist for last year's Vintage Sewing Pattern Pledge.

And this closed turban from Dameswereld from 1948. Turban style hats can be very nice but most online tutorials are for things which are basically twisted jersey headbands. In the tutorial for this thing, the editors distinguish between 'open turbans' which are fashionable to wear with dresses and 'closed turbans' like this one, which are proper hats and should be worn with outerwear. There is a scaled pattern, text and this drawing on how to tie it. It came with the pattern for a 'topper', a short coat for spring. Hat and coat could be made from the same fabric. Which is helpful information for me when considering fabric for this thing.

Oh, and I haven't entirely given up on the skull cap with decoration thing. I think I'll give up on the Vogue pattern and try to draft my own. I know the tiny fascinators you see in party wear don't need much shaping but I'd like to make mine bigger, more of a vintage style hat...