Because its the 20's - why not a 20's Dress

 The Historical Picnic Society Event for March is bring a friend.  I made it so, it is my fault but I do tend to call the first event of the year bring a friend every year.  As such I asked who wanted to be my friend.  My niece, Tayla, very quickly volunteered.

I asked her what she wanted, suggested I could do a quasi medieval dress, Regency or 1950's all of which I could pretty easily throw together in the time I had.  She countered that she could do 1940's or 1920's.  Having been binge watching Closet Historian I immediately thought ahhhh the 1 hour dress and plans for a 1920's began.  Should be simple but for those who have read my previous posts nothing is ever easy when I get involved.

The one hour dress is an easy draft, for full explanation here is where I got my instructions.  Basically take bust measurement plus ease make rectangle half this wide and as long as you want the dress, add some arms and expand at hips to make an I shape.  I however thought ohh the hanky hem that would be great.  Yeah ballsed that one up when my side triangles were like tiny little spikes instead of long billowing hanky hems.  After two days of attempts to fix and trying to reimagine how to add panels to create not only what I wanted but something that was even wearable I decided it was just not pretty.  I wanted my niece to have a nice dress not some frankensteined messed up rag.

yes the first attempt was indeed this bad

I bit the bullet hit up spotlight (again visit 50 this month I am sure) and discovered to my delight a 40% of apparel fabric sale.  This meant that I didn't have to buy the cheap winston or plain satin and suddenly could afford the beautiful Satin Rayon - so pretty, so slinky, so arsie to sew I will never again taint my sanity with its luster.  To accent I found an almost perfect colour match lace.  Armed with these purchases I returned home to complete my 1hr dress.

Personal side note I did this dress in its entirety, including all planning, patterning, draping and adornments in one afternoon from about 10am to 4pm with an hour or so of breaks to pick up my son and the repeated interruption of a baby and a 5 year old (post school).  Do I think it is possible to make a 1hr dress in an actual hour... yes I do.  But it would need to be made out of cotton/easy to sew fabric, have no extra trims or finishes.  I may one day challenge myself to do so.  This one however with lace inserts and neckline belt and bow in slippery fabric was not going to behave in such a manner as to make a 1hr finish possible.

I am actually really happy with the finished result.  I don't think some of the inserts or collar are professionally finished but I also don't think Tayla will care - she isn't going to be wearing this to her wedding. 

Finishing the Unfinished - Blanket Dress

 So this is the first in a series I will be calling finishing the unfinished.  To qualify as a UFO the item has to never have been completed to the point of wearable.  In future I will take photos of how close they were but for this one I will just have to be descriptive.  I call this project The blanket Dress.

Date Started: Circa 2011-2013

Date Finished: 22 March 2021

So with the window of a full decade this dress was left languishing because I was just generally unhappy with how it was going.  It got put aside and not picked up again until now.  The thing I remember not liking - the wonky front neckline.  It was left with all seams done except the zipper side including the lining inserted in the same state but the lining was missing a ruffle (not part of the original pattern - though then again neither was the lining).  

The Pattern was Vintage Vogue 2267 (Currently I believe out of print).  I (well we including Ange) were going through a big 50's phase buying up all the vintage reprint patterns we could get our hands on.  Its not the most exciting vintage pattern but I do like the faux princess line (I say faux because it does have side bust darts so its not entirely princess) and the softer 50's silhouette rather than the super full skirt more often found on these reprints.

The fabric I bought to make a Victorian bustle gown with, and yes I still have umpteen meters of it.  I think it cost a couple bucks a meter in Cabramatta and was a few years owned by the time I made this dress.  The thought was that it would be a warm winter look because the fabric is a very loose weave and very thick fabric.  I like warm.  The loose weave however also made it terrible to cut and sew hence the weird front neck angle. (yes it can not be unseen).

It was dragged around (2 moves) and eventually the cut and overlocked poplin pieces to create the ruffle were misplaced.  The bulk of the dress was located again when my friend and I were organising my sewing stuff and she suggested it was so close to done that I should take a look at it.

It required at that stage: Zip and side seam, ruffle and hem.  Time to complete if I have worked on it non stop probably one afternoon.

Will I use it: Unlikely - 2011 was not just 10 years but also 2 children ago and alas I even tried a corset to get into this for photos and the universe is not favouring me on this one, so Gladys got spiffied up to show off the finished product.

I am proud of how I got my zip in, it is pretty invisible and should be given that it was hand basted, then hand sewn then machine sewn in just to keep the fabric from shifting.  The ruffled under petticoat lining is great for holding the dress in a nice shape without being too over poofed and it styles well with the shirt here.  However that neck still bugs me senseless.  I could given the masses of this fabric left try again in a bigger size, with the experience I think I could generally have this dress finished in a week including taking time to fit the pattern to me (would need resize and FBA) and all finishes, the hem for example was measured from the waste and hand basted before being hand stitched down.  It is a very uncomplicated pattern.  I am unlikely to do so however - at least not with this fabric.  I do think I would like a similar style for my wardrobe but I don't have the patience to try lining up these stripes so we will see if I do find a fabric to inspire me.  I actually think this would look really good with a matching coat, the pattern does have a matching bolero but that isn't as winter friendly.

Now its done I need to decide what to do with it - do I hold onto it in the hopes that I can get small enough or do I send it to a new home?

1940's Crepe De Chine Dress - Final

It sounded so simple right, a commercially available multi-sized reprint of a 1940's pattern.  I have made tones of 1940's dress, most of them requiring resizing from something crazy like 30" bust.  A week tops right.  Enter Crepe De Chine....

I bought the Crepe de Chine (polyester) from Pitt Trading in a remnant bundle 3m for $5 - who can say no especially when one is already paying postage for other fabric.  It was a soft dove grey colour and reminiscent of a dress worn by the mother in the queens gambit.  I had the pattern already in mind and crepe de chine is one of the suggested fabrics.  Tick and Tick.

I actually didn't even need all of the 3m which was fantastic, I started strong trying to do all the things - bar a mock up because how do you make a mock up for something that literally cost $5 in materials? when the material is like water, so it isn't like calico is going to show you anything.  Having made many patterns from the big 4 companies I already knew that the vast majority fit fine if I make a size 16 front and a size 14 back, I just cut and go.  But I did baste my curves and corners, follow the pattern instructions (for a little bit anyway) and I piped pockets and collar,  I lined up all my notches you know all the things you should do but I rarely do.  As photo below yes I always trace my patterns.

So prior to major construction all my pieces looked fantastic.  Pockets attached ready to go the first issue - a narrow bias cut strip sewn into a tube turned out and cut into 6 equal peices to form button loops.  Once sewn I could not get that thing to turn for love nor money.  No worries, take the second one (cause I cut it on the fold) and sew the tube by turning in both sides to the middle then folding down the middle and sewing down the upper edge.  Except Crepe de Chine slides more than even satin, its like as slippery as a bathroom floor after a 5 year olds shower.  So even ironed the strip was too narrow to keep even no matter how many pins it had. 

Ok lets just try and use the best bits, again the slippery nature of the crepe meant I couldn't sew them in the right shape and before full meltdown tantrum could ensue I made the decision that I would create thread loops for the buttons and quietly congratulated myself for such a smart idea.  But was it smart ... indeed it was not, as one can not work out how big the loop must be for the buttons when one has not chosen the buttons.  More on that later - the button loops were sewn further down the process so we will come back to that.

My next issue, why did I decide to come back from almost a year off sewing and make a dress with a round yoke that calls for not one but two 90 degree turns to create the front seam? oh that's right because I am a masochist.  This is I think the pinpoint of where things really started going south for this project and I started giving up on it.  I could not get those turns in.  Maybe in a cotton but not in crepe de chine.  They ended up slightly rounded and not entirely symmetrical but I could not even anymore.

At this point I sewed up my side seams and pinked (as was my chosen method of finishing) and cut through a seam..... because that's something I do.  Never mind it's low so that can be an issue for future hef when she works out the hem.  I tried it on and pulled together the opening where the zip would go and oh god it looked yuk.  Like gab on every single lump and post pregnancy bump possible gross.  It just didn't fit.  And at this point I stopped caring and my brain wandered further and further to the future projects and my sewing time spent on Bernie.

As February closed I realised I had to get this done.  Even if I called it an almost wearable mock up I just had to do it.  There could be no more adding to the UFO's and my self imposed February 28 deadline had come and gone.  I pulled it back out hung it up and assessed.  It needed, zip, hem, button loops, buttons and a good iron.

So in an effort to finish I created the button loops first, yes before I had chosen buttons.  And yes that is as stupid as it sounds.  Next was zip, I hand basted then hand sewed and then machine sewed this in - overkill perhaps but I wanted to make sure there was no slip on that seam.  Once hand sewn in I tried it on again and was pleasantly surprised.  It didn't have that loose fit as patterned but it didn't look bad, well not unfixable by the wonders of elastic slips bad anyway.  Then it struck me I had given up for dead before the race was run.

Lesson Learned - keep an open mind until all hope is gone.

For all its evil the crepe de chine does have a fantastic drape, a soft floaty feel and almost zero fraying.  So it isn't all bad, I think if I use it again I will just have to hand baste the entire seams to ensure less slip.

I am really happy and proud of the way that the piping turned out and the dress is really lovely.  Still needs buttons but I am having issues finding the matching lime colour and I am in no rush so I will keep looking.  All in all it turned out really nice, like everything it isn't perfect but it is wearable, feels beautiful and has far more right than wrong.

Is it Pretty? - Finding my sewjo and finishing the unfinished

 Last year was a great big giant sewing rut.  I fell pregnant in January and was sent home to lockdown in March and was unable to return to work in office before my maternity leave.  Quite literally I spent about 8 months sitting on the lounge doing nothing much.  It was not good for me in many ways and was likely not that different to most other people given the global shitstorm. 

Normally I would have spent time sewing but the pregnancy was quite demotivating, I didn't have anywhere to go and anything I made would be useless now, may not fit later etc etc so why bother.  New year came and the competition for Foundations revealed reinvigorated me and now I am overflowing with plans and ideas.  

Slowly the sewing supplies are making their way back up to me from under the house, organisation was happening but sewing, well not so much.  There were setbacks with the 1940's dress I had started not turning out as I had imagined, everything was just a lot.  Then in my procrastinating binge watching of you tube I came across the closet historian and this video. I don't think the closet historian could have imagined what effect the small intro to this video would have on me and most specifically one question.

IS IT PRETTY? 

A lot of my procrastination happened because I want it to be perfect, but it doesn't have to be perfect,  does it?  It just has to be pretty (to me, beauty is after all in the eye of the beholder).  Does it matter if it has a zip instead of hooks and eyes - no because its pretty.  I don't want to wear costumes because they are historically accurate, reenactment isn't my thing.  I want to wear costumes because they are pretty.  I want to make my own clothes because they are pretty and if I stop trying to fulfil the self imposed accuracy to historical standards I could concentrate more on the modern technical skills such as fitting, drafting, designing.  Those things will make my stuff  more pretty not hand felling the internal seams.

So today I did something I haven't done in about 2 years at least - I got out my overlocker (serger for those who know it by that name).  Is it historically accurate as a means of seam finishing ? - nope.  Do you see it? also nope.  And it has the major benefit of being quick and easy. 

That's not to say I can give up on all hand finishes just that I can prioritise what will add to the aesthetic and what is just being finicky for no personal gain.  Sure there are those out there to which the historical finishes are super important, and that is what makes them happy but I won't find my happiness in their pursuits - and you may not find yours in mine.  Find what satisfies your own desires and follow that path.

So with this new motivation I have hit the ground running and am on track to complete 2 unfinished projects this month.  One a 50's dress that was started probably 8-10 years ago... sat unfinished and unloved until this week when I inserted a zip, added an internal ruffle and now am left with just a hem.  Oh and a diet because it doesn't quite fit me - sorry if those pics end up being on Gladys.

I have also redesigned a costume from January of 2019 taking it from "colonial" to "gone with the wind" using mostly stash.

The 40's dress just needs buttons, though I may need to provide the post for that before I add them as I am yet to find ones that will work.  Lime green buttons are hard to find.

I have also traced out designed and prepared for the making of the renaissance outfit which I am dramatically calling Juliet in mourning... despite it not being black. 

I doubt I will finish all of this for march but I will have the two UFO's over and done with I am sure and that feels like an accomplishment.

So though you are likely to never see this My thanks Closet Historian, your work has refocused my joy.

Procrastination or am I just being organised

 So technically by now you should be seeing the finished 40's dress from February but alas it remains unfinished.  There are several reasons why I have procrastinated but I will save those for the next post which should be the finished dress (hopefully by the end of next week, I am so close to done).  This post is less about why I am procrastinating and more about what I am doing instead of finishing the 40's dress.

Well for those who have been on the instagram (angelic_cow) you will have seen I have been collecting the necessities for the next big costume a renaissance inspired simplicity pattern I have been dreaming of for about a decade.  I have only some velvet ribbon to source and I will be good to go and expect to start this week.  

However, the major procrastination project has been to get all the textiles we have stored under the house and move them to a safer storage facility.  This was pushed by the removal of a cot and mattress last month from storage under the house and discovered the mattress was moldy.  Queue concern for my entire fabric stash.

I could have just brought up boxes as they were and moved them to storage but that would not be procrastination, and so I decided to catalogue and re-organise the entire fabric stash.  To be fair its been a long time coming.  My reasons to do this now is that the bulk of the fabric was being stored in large 120 litre tubs and I can not move them.  Worse I can not convince my husband to move them.  So those big tubs are being broken down to smaller tubs that can be easily managed.  Secondly as previously mentioned I need to work on clearing out the stash and so I need a way of knowing what I have.

I have previously planned out this sort of thing even started big spreadsheets of length, width, thread count, ideas for it, cost of it and so on..... and on.... and on.  This time I have decided to keep is simple and I am finding that I am getting to the bottom of things rather quickly.  I am recording no more than the length and width with a small swatch carefully measured and cut.  Nah, just kidding I'm hacking off from scraps or selvage edges at random. I was smart enough that I have recorded the measurements in lead pencil so that if I use some but not all I can just change the measurements to what is left.  I used a hard cover notebook that my husband had laying around.  Because it is a cleaning out kind of time, so use what you got right?

As for the organisation on the other side, I am trying to some extent to group fabrics in some way so each box can be labeled.  It started more simplicity with just costume, children's and wearable fabric but I have since expanded to having a specific suiting and wool box, because as it turned out for that box I could be more specific.  I have not referenced the box to the book as yet since I assume I will end up resorting at different times.

On top of all this I am (gasp) getting rid of fabric I don't think I will use.  Yes I know I will have a use for it about a week after getting rid of it but at the same time I do just need to cut back on some things.  At this stage using only stash fabric I could continue to create well into my 80's and much of it is not a good quality fabric.  Do not fear though I am not sending this to landfill and if a friend doesn't take it I will drop it off at the sewing basket to support Achieve Australia.

I estimate maybe another 4 or 5 boxes of various sizes exist under the house so this project may go on until the end of March, but once that's done I guess I can start re-organising trims and notions. 

Anyway with luck I will have the 40's dress up next week and have begun the hoop and Renaissance projects of March even with all the organisation.

Feeling the 18th Century Bern.... Or Making Bernie Sanders Pockets

 

Ok so it may seem like a random combination but really was there anything safe from the insertion of Bernie Sanders and is rocking mittens? 

For anyone who hasn't been following and missed it (don't know how you could have missed the Bernie Meme but found this blog but who am I to judge), a photo was snapped of Bernie Sanders at the Biden inauguration looking so very Bernie with a pair of the most awesome warm gloves known to mankind.  Queue the internet photoshopping Bernie into anything and everything, Bernie himself printed the image on jumpers and sold them to send proceeds to Vermont Meals on Wheels.  Jumpers sold out almost immediately.  

Now maybe one day I will make a post about politics and costuming but for now let me just say the TL:DR for that post would be Hef believes that political discourse is not a requirement of costuming and would therefore prefer to keep the two separate.  Many don't and whatever you do you, but I don't costume for political reasons.  Having said that I can't say I am not a Sanders fan, despite being an Aussie and it having zero impact on my life.

So when Sewstine posted a video alerting me to the fact she had created a pattern for an 18th Century Pocket with the Bernie Meme on it I was on etsy faster than the road runner evading Wylie Coyote.  I purchased the hand embroidery pattern and as a complete noob just winged it.

I located in my stash a mid to heavy weight calico and purchased a cheap hoop and the cheap embroidery thread from Spotlight.  I decided Bernie wouldn't mind the utilitarian use of stash and cheaping out on notions so long as it got the job done. 

My method to transfer the picture from pattern to fabric was rudimentary and wrong, tracing the picture on tracing paper in pencil and then rubbing the pencil onto the material, this explains both the fact that Bernie is transfixed (faces the wrong direction) and the B and S at the top are not perfectly positioned.  The later happened because my method gave me a backwards B and S on the wrong side of each other - yes this is what tipped me off to the issue.  I did however keep the direction and just tried to reverse and replace the letters on the top.  I am not unhappy with my result but next time I'll tape to the window and trace directly to fabric.

I won't go into too much detail regarding how I stitched this since I am fairly certain I did it wrong, I did make a few artistic choices which deviate from the sewstine original design because it either was easier or seemed like a good idea at the time (lesson learnt future hef did judge past hef harshly for most of those choices).  It is basically a satin stitch on everything.  I will however note that I was very unhappy when i was stitching pants, but then when I got some distance to view it they became my favourite part of the stitching.

To finish it off I ironed on interfacing to the back of the stitched panel, no idea if this is what you are supposed to do but I figured since I wanted the pocket to be useable it would protect my internal stitches.  I then placed a second square of calico behind it and cut the pocket out of all three at once.  I returned to my stash to find a ribbon to edge with and though there were several choices (emerald green, grey blue, teal) none seemed right.  I decided that it was too fancy for Bernie, a man so practical that this meme exists at all, and decided to edge it with a simple similar toned bias tape and a democratic blue seam line to match the initials.

I first whip stitched the bias tape to the open slit to make sure this didn't get damaged in the process of sewing up the rest.  Call me crazy but my very careful external stitches look worse than my quick and functional internal ones... I think I need to work on my whip stitching.  The bias tape here got folded twice because well that S was placed to close to the slit and a full half width would have gone over its edge.  I think it looks fine though.

I sewed the top to be open as a tube to feed the cord (also from Stash) through that will then attach it to my waist.  Couple of knots later and he's done.

Is he perfect, no - but I think Bernie Sanders would appreciate the imperfections exist but not to spite the efforts made. In short I am very happy with my work here.

By the way for more regular updates I now have an instagram 

angelic_cow

come follow for the progress shots of these projects :)