Leaning Toward Retro

Here is my show-and-tell on one of the best sewing pattern books I have discovered since Gertie and Colette's. It is mostly in japanese, so the title is a bit humorous--Fascinating Dresses from the Memorable 60s Movies. Subtitle, "Have You ever Wished to be Glamorous Like Them?"

I heard about this book from an entry in PatternReview.com and asked my brother in Japan to look for it. He found a used copy and sent it to me. He mentioned the pictures of the model in the book reminded him of old pictures of our mom.  It's okay for someone to "regress" to fashions that were before one's time, right? But I sure think these would look amazing on young ladies.

Unfortunately, I do not read japanese, so I can only guess at what the captions and instructions say. Perhaps it's not so important anyway, especially since I am familiar with basic clothing construction.

These clothes are so cute! And it's delightful how they interpret the glamour of all these movie stars with this one Japanese model.

I love the cut of this raincoat styled after Catherine Deneuve, and the fresh minty color!

Here are 2 of the 4 Brigitte Bardot styles. I made the one on the right, which I'll show you in my next blog entry.

There are photos from old movies interspersed throughout the book, but go figure, the clothing designs are not really close to what the actresses are wearing in these photos.

Two of the Katherine Hepburn-inspired styles. She was famous for wearing drapey trousers, but these aren't offered as one of the patterns. 

Here are instructions and diagrams for the Brigitte Bardot dress that I made. Fortunately the drawings are much better than the previous "style" drawings. They are actually very helpful. Notice the illustration that shows to interface the entire front and back of the bodice. That is because the bodice is cut on the bias in order to turn the gingham design diagonally. A more unique feature is the underarm gusset (not interfaced). There are two dresses in this book that feature this gusset. I really like the concept of it, but I wasn't happy with my execution. How to sew an acute angle onto an obtuse angle. 

The layout diagram for Bardot dress. The dress has a lining, which I think is should be laid out straight rather than on the bias.

The pattern sheets are printed on top of each other with no seam allowances, as in Burdastyle. 

There are only two sizes offered, M and L.  I would use a 38 or 40 in Burdastyle, and I used the L.

More info:

Link to this book in Amazon Japan

ISBN 4-579-10691-1

author, Yukiko Ueno

copyright 1996 printed in Japan

An Elegant T-shirt

I didn't expect to like the HotPatterns La Strada top as much as I do. After tinkering with the fit a little-- doing a SBA and shortening the length and sleeves a bit, I ended up with a perfect little pattern that I can whip up an elegant top from in about 2 hours. The creation of this garment was greatly speeded up by watching the very convenient tutorial video provided by Trudy, the pattern designer!

Here is the first version. I just love this color--reminds me of café creme, warm and comfy. But unfortunately it doesn't do much for my skin tone. I will probably just wear it around the house.

 

The muslin which got cut down a few times in attempting to get a closer fit.

Version in printed cotton interlock, light and summery

Version in solid cotton interlock, attention-getting hot color!

Version in purple rayon knit, extremely sexy drapey

Daughter's version in canteloupe-colored rayon knit

 With just a minor adjustment in narrowing the hips, I used the same pattern to make my daughter one for her birthday. In the back view photo, you can see the ruching on the back neck, which is a nice detail you don't see often in sewing patterns.

Dress for Success--Vogue Men's Suit Pattern

Well, here finally are the finished photos for the suit. I didn’t realize that I had left this project hanging (blog-wise) for so long—sorry about that! 

I was very happy with the pants pattern and instructions. I think this is the best-fitting pair of pants my son has ever owned.

My conclusion about Vogue 8890 is that this may be a good place to start for someone who has never done tailoring before.  It would be best to study a tailoring book such as Roberto Cabrera’s Classic Tailoring Techniques , or Tailoring, the Classic Guide to Sewing the Perfect Jacket. That being said, I would add that it is a great thing that Vogue Patterns offers this gem of a modern, European-cut suit. Hopefully they will keep it in print for a long time.

Suit Progress

The suit is coming along nicely, although I spent a lot of fiddly time on one of the pockets. I don't think the method described in the Vogue instructions is the best, but I think it could be mastered with a bit of practice. 

Here it is halfway done, trying it's best to hold itself up on my female dress form.

 

And now the sleeves with their vents. These were pretty easy, with satisfyingly good results. The buttonholes are not to be cut, with the buttons being sewn right onto them through the layers. Personally, I think it would be easier to sew the buttons on with the vent open and just go ahead and use the buttonholes. But I suppose it looks neater not being cut.

And some fun sewing room pictures.

 
 
 

Vogue Suit Guy

As of coffee break today, this is what I have done. I am working on a suit for my college son in Chicago, who sure seems to play dress-up quite a lot for dinners out with various friends and interest

groups. 

Here is one of the lower pockets, with its flap ready to be put in. The fabric is navy blue wool, much darker than this photo shows. The fluorescent light in my sewing room is just terrible for photos! I wasn't going to worry about matching the stripes, as they are barely noticeable, but well, there they are in the photo, and so I might have to redo those flaps. Guess I should have cut them out after preparing the pocket opening.

I've done the cutting in two sessions this week. What a lot of pieces. Here are just some of them on my pingpong table, which has been my favorite place to cut lately.

Here's the pattern, which I have to keep hidden else my husband bursts out laughing.

The State of my Sewing Table

A whole lot of thread

A little package arrived today which was my backorder from WAWAK Sewing supply: a 6000 yd spool of cream jeans thread and bowtie hardware.  This is a whole a lot of thread!  But I have been sewing a lot of jeans--three pairs and two pairs of jean shorts for my daughter this summer. And so I was wanting to add to my selection of top stitching thread colors.

What about the bowtie hardware? Well, these were on sale and a couple years ago I was going crazy trying to find some of this hardware, which came in packages of two. 

 

More Jalie Crossover Top

I am so excited about how little time it takes to make this top, basically a T-shirt which can be worn just about anywhere. It is comfortable enough for casual wear, but much nicer than a regular T-shirt. I decided to make one up for Isabel in polka-dotted rayon knit, taking a bit more time due to setting up the cover stitch machine for the hems and making a facing for the back neck.

The pattern directions have you finishing the neck by turning and stitching. This is fine for children's tops, in a sturdier knit such as cotton, and you could add some sort of stabilizer under the turn-and-stitch finish.

Turn and stitch back neckline

But I learned a great technique for a knit neckline from HotPatterns.

The facing is only on the back neckline but neatly encloses and reinforces part of the shoulder seams.
Here are some photos which show the steps to sewing in the facing. (Sorry for the stripes; they show up because of my fluorescent lighting.) I drew a back facing using the back pattern piece as guide, then cut and interfaced the piece.

After attaching the facing to the back piece, sew the shoulder seams. Then, turn the facing down over toward the front.

After the facing has been applied and turned to the correct side, stitch down the edge with a zigzag stitch to keep it from flipping on you.

Jalie Crossover Top

I dug out this pattern because my 12-year old expresses admiration every time I wear the fuschia and black top I made. So since Jalie patterns include the whole range of sizes from toddler to way past mine, it was time to take advantage of it. I bought this pattern years ago, and made 2 tops. I liked the tops, but I've also been sewing other very similar wrap tops from other patterns. I've come to the conclusion that the Jalie wrap top is my favorite.

For the version with the sea-green band, I made the back hem with a curve, rather than straight. 

I made this version in autumn colors several years ago, in rayon knit, with non-stretch faux suede bands.

This top is so quick to make! I am averaging about 1 hour per top.

Ready for Winter

While it is still pretty warm to be trying on a wool coat, Isabel gladly modeled it for me, as she was quite excited to receive a nice coat.

There are several things about this design that I really like. The belt detail is a bit unusual and actually doesn't look bad unfastened. When the belt is unbuttoned, it doesn't hang down too low, and there's no way to lose it. Or instead, it can be left fastened while the rest of the coat is unbuttoned, for a bit of climate control. While the size and shape of the patch pockets can easily be customized, the idea here is that they are nice and deep, so things don't fall out as easily. And finally, the oh-so-easy-to-construct collar can be worn up to guard against wind, or folded down, and there was no notch construction to deal with. 

I wanted this coat to be roomy enough to wear with a sweater, so I made a size 40, with no alterations, and I am quite happy with the fit. 

Coat Lining

Oh, what a glorious Saturday, and how relaxing it is to be finishing a coat that already looks good. 

 

 

Estate Coat

It's certainly time for a blog restart! Now made much easier via an iPhone app.

My current project: a coat for Isabel before she goes off to college. 

Pattern: Burdastyle mode 102 August 2013

Fabric: Brown heathered wool, prewashed

Lining: Chinese style brocade, polyester (probably)

Here's the model pic from the magazine.

And so far, here's what I've got. No lining yet, and unhemmed. I thought my wool fabric would be too light for a coat, but with all the pieces sewn together, it actually has a hefty weight! Plus, my lining is going to have some body as well.

The Burda directions actually have you doing bound buttonholes, which I should have looked up on the Colette website before I went and did half of them the more time-consuming way. On to the lining!