The Indigo Leaves Dress

I finally managed to photograph another garment! It's a tricky business during winter it seems, as I don't really like indoor shots (especially for a lack of a decent background) and my photographer isn't really available during daytime hours. Anyway, I dragged my dear brother away from his studying to quickly take some pictures of this dress:

I made this some time ago and wear it quite often, but didn't get around to photograph it. The pattern is a copy of a well-loved H&M dress (yeah you heard that right!) that had been through the wash one too many times and had to go. It fit me really well though, and the style was perfect for lots of different occasions, so I took it apart and used it as a pattern for this dress. It's a fairly simple pattern with a few interesting details, mainly the five darts around the neckline. Darts I didn't photograph because this is what happens if I'm out in the cold for too long:

Um, yes. The rest of the dress is pretty straightforward: a pleated skirt with pockets, a tie around the waist, no sleeves, yadda yadda. But the back has a nice surprise:

Omg, buttons! They were functional on the original dress but mine aren't because my buttonhole foot is still lost (and surprise surprise, it's hard to get decent buttonholes with your regular presser foot... Not impossible, but tricky!) and I never used them anyway.

The verdict: I love my new dress, it's already a staple in my wardrobe, I should really trace the pieces of the old one so I have a paper pattern, I need a new buttonhole foot. Or find the old one. But I'm afraid it fell into my scraps bin and was accidentally tossed out. Boo.

Organizing

I rarely get the urge to clean or organize, but this week I took a look at my pattern stash and realised something had to change. I don't really have a lot of space for sewing, definitely not compared to how much fabric I have. Most of the fabric I plan to use soon is stored in two plastic bins that have been overflowing for months, and all the rest (lining and muslin fabrics, remnants, gifted things without a designated purpose) takes up a small cupboard in the hallway. I also have one large plastic bin for patterns, something that should work out in theory. But months of taking stuff out and putting it back in left the bin looking like this:

 Yeah, that's bad. But the inside is worse:

That's what you get when you start drafting patterns (so no envelopes) and just toss them into a box because you haven't thought of a way to keep them organized. I had been thinking about this issue, and knowing myself, I knew it had to be something I could store quickly because I'm LAZY when it comes to cleaning up. I had used flimsy plastic sleeves before because they were there, but they just kept sliding all over the place and fitting all the pattern pieces inside was almost as fiddly as pattern envelopes. So on a trip to the art supply store, I decided to take a look at the office supplies and find an alternative.

Tadaa! I found these cardboard folders for absolutely no money, and figured they'd be perfect. I could write anything on the front or even make a sketch of the garment, and they were large enough to keep a load of pieces. So after an hour or two of unloading this bin, sorting loose pieces and storing I was left with this:

Phew, that's better. I've got a heap of folders with self-drafted or pdf-printed patterns on one side, and extra folders, patterns with envelopes and sewing magazines on the other. This actually feels like a way of storing things even I might keep up!

Now on to the fabric...

A new Year

I might just be the last person to make a post like this. Happy New Year everyone! It's been quite busy around here, with little time for sewing activities. Thankfully I spent my Christmas money on a truckload of fabric, and found a few spare moments to make some plans!

I never really make New Year's resolutions, but I did spend some time thinking about what I want to sew and how. Lately I realised I was hurrying to finish projects as soon as possible, producing as many garments as I could in the limited time I had. When I noticed I started skipping things to be quicker, an alarm bell went off. What was the point in spending time sewing my own clothes if I wasn't going to do it properly? So that is my first and main resolution for this upcoming year (and the ones after this one as well): sew slow!

I have mentioned before how I wanted to make a proper winter coat, and the red wool I'm going to use arrived this week. The pattern will start from a basic double-breasted coat pattern I bought last year, but I will add some things such as wider lapels, pleats in the front and of course the back detailing (which I've completely ripped from a vintage coat I saw on Etsy). It will involve a lot of muslins and a lot of tailoring, but hopefully I'll end up with a gorgeous and warm coat! (By the way, the wool I bought is nowhere near as pink as the colour in the sketch, it's just really hard to photograph! The colour was called 'cardinal' and it's a lovely red, slightly deeper than your average bright red.)

The second coat I have planned for this year will be a trenchcoat in blue. I have made a trench before (pre-blog) and loved the idea, but the pattern wasn't quite right. I found a Burda coat I love, and will probably add a few details and make a couple of changes.

I will definitely continue my love affair with prints this year. The birds have already arrived, and the woodland fabric is on its way. I realise this might not be everyone's cup of tea, but I really really love simple dresses as a canvas for an amazing print.

Here's another one of those prints, and another resolution: I do need a few more basic items as well. I have this chambray lying around and think it would make a lovely dress, to be worn just as is in summer and spring and with a cardigan and tights in fall and winter. I'm also planning to learn sewing with knits: at the moment I still rely on H&M and such for t-shirts, but being able to make my own would be a huge step forward. A t-shirt doesn't take a lot of fabric and the end result wouldn't even be all that more expensive than the cheapies I buy (and ruin) on the high street.

So these are some new year's thoughts, and an idea of what to expect on this blog the following months!

Silence

Hello everyone,

I want to apologize for the long silence on this blog... I currently have a lot of work so there's not that much time left for sewing. I do have a post or two planned for next week, so stay tuned!

In the meantime, here is a sewing-themed piece I made some time ago. To see more of my illustration work, visit my other blog!

The Cloudy Coat

So... I finished that basic coat I was working on. And even though it's nowhere near perfect, I'm pretty damn proud of myself!

Here it is:

Ok, that doesn't say much. But it's a pretty picture.

Here's a clearer one:

DERP! Oh well. As I said before, this is a coat from the October issue of Burda. I liked it because of its simple lines and thought it would be a good first coat, to get familiar with the techniques before I tackled a more complicated project.

I quickly found out that being lucky before with Burda patterns fitting me really well straight from the pattern wasn't true in this case. I ended up removing a substantial chunk of fabric from the back to avoid that 'I'm wearing my dad's jacket'-look. The shoulders are still too wide. But the thing is damn comfortable.

The instructions actually had you slipstitch the patch pockets on the coat before topstitsching them, something I really liked. If you only topstitch the lining tends to peek out, which isn't a good look...

Now for a List of Things I Did Differently:

- I made bound buttonholes instead of machine-stitched ones. I don't like the ones my machine makes and I'm too lazy to handwork them.
- I cut the under collar in two pieces on the bias, instead of one piece. Really happy I did, because it would have been even harder to make it sit flat.
- I attached the collar and lining mostly by hand.
- I underlined my (silk charmeuse!) lining with flannel for extra warmth. This was a great thing because the coat is now super cuddly, but it also made the lining pieces easier to handle. Slippery fabric bullet dodged!
- I inserted my sleeves using Gertie's method and it was AWESOME, they went in perfectly the first time and I was grinning like an idiot.

Sleeves!

Overall, I'd say this project was a success. I was surprised at how much I liked all the handstitching and basting and fiddling, being such an impatient person. But the thing I loved the most was the pressing: the last time I tried using the steam function on my iron the power went out, so now I made do with a bucket of water and a damp press cloth. It felt very old-school and sort of magical, seeing the wool shape and transform like that.

Yay!

(Insert Smug Face Here)

Can I just shamelessly gloat for a second?

I've been working on a very basic winter coat, a pattern from Burda Magazine. It seemed like a nice and basic coat, not too fussy to make and a good way to practice coatmaking and get familiar with some techniques before starting the real deal (a coat that's been in the pipeline for a long time, with loads of tailoring and pattern alterations).

Anyway, this coat is double-breasted, and requires three buttonholes. I really don't like the buttonholes my sewing machine makes (and I kinda lost my buttonhole foot), so these weren't an option for this. My hand-worked buttonholes aren't exactly up to the task either, they still look too much like they want to bite the buttons off. So I realised I'd have to have a go at (gasp) bound buttonholes.

Now these require precision, patience and a whole lot of basting. I had seen other bloggers post about them and show off their crooked first efforts. SO last night, I was prepared to spend the whole night cursing and fiddling with tiny pieces of fabric, counting stitches and wondering why the hell I was doing this.

Let's just say, that didn't happen. Here's my first bound buttonhole ever:

 
Um, ok. That's not too bad, right? There's a bit more of a parallellogram going on than I'd like, but apart from this and the accidental chevron, it's actually quite... good.

So after this one test I marked, cut and sewed all three bound buttonholes immediately. And they came our perfectly fine. Yay!

I used the instructions in the tailoring book by Adele P. Margolis I mentioned here, which uses two narrow strips of fabric instead of a patch, and it all went together without a hitch.

So hooray for learning new skills without too much fussing!

London Fabric Haul

Ok, this isn't really a fabric haul. And this post is way too late. But for some reason I took the photos and then marked the folder as 'posted', and failed to notice this until a few days ago.

So, I went to London at the end of September, and managed to buy a few sewing-related things! Not a lot of fabric (I was still getting over the Garment District), but I did find a few very nice vintage sewing books:

These were all bought at the same vintage store in Camden. I don't really shop for clothes anymore, and most vintage stores these days seem horribly overpriced, so I simply don't have the patience anymore to browse through them. In this store however, a large bookcase drew my attention, and I noticed they had an extensive selection on costuming and sewing! These three came home with me, for different reasons.

This book is one from a series, and I had another one at home: the only book on tailoring I've ever found in Dutch. The Dutch one came from my stepfather's bookcase, he has loads of books on subjects he was once interested in (it was next to one about keeping chickens).

The techniques described in this one are pretty basic, but I love the wacky illustrations.

Next I found a copy of the Singer Sewing Book from 1961. I bought it because it has loads of nice ideas for trims and decorations, and a few gems when it comes to sewing tips (they say you should always look your best when sewing, because worrying about someone dropping by and seeing you look sloppy is bad for your concentration. Wow.)

I like simple ideas like this one, using topstitching to mimic stripes!

But this is my best find so far: the Complete Book of Tailoring by my dear Adele P. Margolis. It has over four hundred pages of information on tailoring alone! Everything from pretreating wools to finding the right silhouette.

All you need to know about pressing, hand sewing, three different ways to do bound buttonholes... I squealed when I found this.

Of course, I couldn't help but stop by Liberty. I have a confession to make: I'm not always too fond of their prints (gasp!). It's just that small-scale flower prints look really really dull on me! I love them on other people but I just have to steer clear from them. But then I did see something that struck my fancy.

Ooh yes. bright colours and poppies? Bring it on. I've got three yards of this lawn and it's going to become a summer dress, all the way!