True Blue

OK, peeps, this is yet another post which capitalizes on everything blue - for starters a great sale that Ms. Denise of Blue Gardenia is hosting - but only from Jan. 15 - 17. If you are even thinking about buying a vintage pattern in the next few months, don't be crazy. Buy it then and save a lot! (Note: you do have to buy 3 patterns to get the discount but, trust me, it will take about 4 minutes to find the perfect 3. Her inventory is extensive!) I've got my eye on a slip pattern from the 70s- like I need another?! - and a 50s dress that happens to be petite (and it has a 37.5" bust). Um, that's just like me!

But let's focus on today's slip: the Blue Ruby:

Very Elizabeth Taylor, no?

You can just vaguely see the asymmetry in the lace on either side of the centre bust. Do you see how one side (right as you look at it) has embroidered leaves and the other side has star-shaped flowers?

I'd have modeled this on the dress form but its shoulders are too wide. I can get it over my head and boobs (just), but I've already damaged the silk (ugh) by trying to get it to conform to the shape of an inanimate form.

At any rate, here's what I can tell you about this version:

• The lace cost a lot of money. Probably too much.
• And I don't love it. It's too mesh-y, which means a) it's effectively weak and b) very starkly shows a bra underneath it. And you know I'm not wearing this without a bra.
  
• The pattern, asymmetry is almost indiscernible, however.
• I've decided that I'll only sew with denser lace in the future.
• Oh, apropos of stitching down the lace seams: this time I did press both seam allowances to one side before top stitching at 1/8". The lace was too transparent to do it differently. And this didn't add any bulk.
  
• The bra straps were actually pre-made. I got them from Bra-Makers Supply last year and what good fortune. I hate assembling hoops and sliders. Hurts my brain. Also, these straps are 1/2 inch, not 5/8 inch wide - which makes the slip look more delicate. I mean, they're not holding up any weight to speak of so that width is just fine. That the straps are black is actually handy. Since I'll likely wear the slip with a black bra underneath, I'd prefer not to have 2 diff shades of straps to contend with.
  
• The silk skirt is beautiful and fits perfectly. Alas, the handkerchief hem didn't go so well. It looks great from the right side (see photo above), but the inside looks a bit gerbil-sewn.
• Once again, I top stitched (under stitched) the bodice seam allowance to the slip. But this time I didn't first serge that seam. It was too narrow.
• Here's something I didn't mention the last time, but it's germane: Because I increased the length of the bodice, the scalloped lace is now too high under my arm pit. I'm going to have to shape the pieces that abut under the arm so that they don't do this again. Not exactly sure how I'm going to accomplish this.

All this being said, I think it's a pretty good second effort. I'm glad I didn't use cheap materials. You can really feel the luxury of these fabrics.

I really do think that, for a woman of ample bust, the Ruby Slip gather bodice will be easier to fit. Silk charmeuse has a lot of natural give and I have a intuition that an underbust gather will "hug" the breasts (depending on their shape, and the gathers, natch). Silk is also stronger around the upper back and over the chest. Finally, it's easier to work a garment in one fabric, than in 2 disparate fabrics which meet a stress-bearing join. A decorative edge of lace is pretty, but not structurally integral.

As always, I welcome comments. Which of the 2 slips do you prefer? The shorter pink one? Or this one? I only wish I could present them in the same way for better comparison...

Palettable: Spring Basics

Your looking at the culmination of a lot of work. A freakin' lot of work. And my husband would like you to know he did half of it.

(BTW, don't bother clicking on it unless you're only interested in a larger view of the colour swatches. However, if you right click the image and open it in another tab, you will be treated to the loveliest digital artwork!)

As you can see, my spring colour-scheme is decidedly northern. Partly, this is because I live, uh, in the North. Partly it's because I just can't do the springy pastel palette. Oh, I like it. It's lovely and sunny. It just doesn't reflect the shades and tones I wear.

I've planned six garments over 12 weeks:

• Cowl Dress V8413
• T Shirt from my Sew U: Home Stretch sloper
• Butterick 5681 Culottes (I don't care if these have been out of fashion since 1979. I'm bringing them back, baby.)
• 2921 Jalie Scarf Collar Top. This won 2010 Pattern Review Pattern of the Year.
• 3115 Kwik Sew Yoga Pants
• Ginger Skirt, version 3
  

I've made the dress, the T shirt, the yoga pants and the skirt at least once before. The yoga pants need some pattern alteration. When first I made them, I didn't understand crotch depth and length. Of course, on reconstruction, what can't be improved?

This project is about making things pretty. Making things well. It's also about making things I know I'll wear.

Let's deconstruct the value of each piece, shall we?

• V8413 dress is flattering. Every time I wear my wearable muslin, so many people comment on how elegant it is. But, secretly, it's comfortable and easy! I'm going to make it in bright orange doubleknit, a colour and fabric I do not shy away from.
  
• Y'all know I worked that T shirt pattern hard. Just check out the 8 zillion posts :-). A T shirt is endlessly useful. Esp. one in a cheery jewel tone rayon jersey.
• The grey, cotton jersey yoga pants are practical writ large. They're not exciting, but they'll probably get more use than any of the other items. If I sort out the pattern to reflect my crotch depth and length, I'll really have done myself a good turn for the future.
• The culottes are the outlier. I haven't seen the pattern pieces yet (though it's on order). I considered altering the Clovers into culottes, but I don't know if it will work with my current level of experience. I would love for these to work so I can make them for all seasons. For these, I've reserved the darkest fabric - a brown-burgundy wool blend suiting. I just can't see them in a bright colour, though I will wear them with bright colours (acid yellow, anyone?). I imagine these will be an early spring garment.
• The Ginger, well, this skirt is a joy. And I've reserved for the bias cut version of it the most spectacular of colours - a cerise wool-blend twill of such depth that I am overjoyed just to look at it.
• The final top, with a scarf tie, walks the line between euro chic and American classic. I'm going to throw in a little bit of gamine by using a lovely rayon jersey floral that combines all of the colours in my palette.

Can you believe that I had 3 of these fabrics in my stash already? And that I still spent $150 bucks on fabric?? (That does include some stupidly expensive lace I bought for the current and future Ruby's .) I mention this a) because it horrifies me that I'm spending triple digits on clothing that isn't actually made yet and b) because I feel compelled to remind us all that sewing is freakin' expensive. But not as expensive as gorgeous RTW or designer clothing.

One other note, the croquis is much cuter than the last one, no? It's cuz I drew it from a posey photo, not from a dour posture appropriate for charting measurements. I heartily suggest you do this. I feel much more like Posey Croquis (P.Cro?) than that last drawing.

Any thoughts about all of this? I'd love to hear from those of you who have already undertaken one of these palette projects. Or from those of you who might do one soon. (I have to imagine that Colette Patterns will reintroduce its Spring Palette Challenge, as I know it was very popular.)

The Slip Saga Continues...

Brief update on the blue Ruby Slip. She is now cut out, skirt hanging on the dress form.

Some things of interest:

• Silk charmeuse is not as delicate as it looks. I have washed it, hung it to dry and steam pressed it (yes, with actual water) and it actually looks glossy and hangs nicely. It's not the same as its prewashed self, but growth is good, yes?
  
• Bias cut silk charmeuse is its own animal, people. OMG, what a princess! I can tell there's going to be some finagling with the hang.
• OK, this one is baffling - turns out my new blue lace, scalloped on both edges of the 60" width fabric (also 30 bucks a yard, fyi, and I used almost a yard), has a different motif on one scalloped side than the other?!?!? How can this be. Admittedly, I didn't look at it closely as it was being cut - I never in a million years imagined this might occur. The motifs are complementary (as they would have to be) but the flower pattern is obvs deliberately different. One half of the front of my slip is going to have one motif. The other half will have the other. I'm going to call it an interesting design feature.
• One other thing about cutting the lace. By the time you get to the lace, the cutting part of this project can be overwhelming. It really is the most tedious element. (I find cutting tedious at the best of times.) This time I decided not to be so matchy-matchy hardcore (obviously). The motif on this lace is airy. I just lay the pieces right next to each other as I cut them. That has to work, by logic, right? Even when you take seam allowances into consideration, there will be alignment. Or not. But it didn't torment me for 90 minutes this time.
  

Spring into Action

Oh, I am somewhat overwhelmed by my imagination. So many ideas - not so much digital illustrating experience. And yet I want to show you what's in my mind the way that many other sewing bloggers do.

I also have this schizophrenic, if creative, perspective on my reasons for wanting to story board. That's the subject of another post. A really long post.

However, this post is to tell you that I intend to do a Spring Basics Palette over the next 12 weeks and here's what it will entail:

• 6 garments - 4 of which have been sewn with success before. This isn't about reinventing the wheel. It's about nicely finishing and newly interpreting some standards for a new season. The garments will include a dress, a skirt, a pair of pants, a t shirt, a top and a pair of lounge (aka yoga) pants. Pattern names and numbers will follow...

• A fun, digital, fashion story board to show colour schemes and renderings of those garments on my croquis - likely not the one I've shown you already, but a new one (traced from another photo) which is more sassy. Having never yet tried to paint clothes on top of my croquis, I have no idea of how this is actually going to work. Palette experts, you may be getting some emails.

I'm going to give more details as soon as I can pull them together but I'll leave you with a few thoughts:

• My colour choices are really whacky. I don't know if they'll cohere in a palette, though I'm not concerned that they won't cohere in my wardrobe.
• I've already bought the fabric for 3 of the pieces and I have the fabric for 2 others in my stash. That leaves one garment to purchase for, unless I have some changes of heart.
• I've spent about $150.00 on the fabric and notions for 3 of the 6 garments. The fabric I already purchased for the other 2 probably cost me $30.00. I speculate I will spend $200.00 and 6 weekends over the next 12 weeks to produce my spring wardrobe.
• I estimate I would have to spend upwards of $600.00 to purchase these items RTW. Of course, that would take about 2 hours.
• Recently, Peter wrote asked the interesting question "Are you a practical or fantasy sewer?" This didn't take more than a moment of consideration for me. I am practical. Of course, who can say if my version of practical is someone else's whimsical, but no mind. The Spring Basics Palette is so named because I anticipate the pieces to work interdependently - and day-to-day.
  

And to close the loop on the topic of the next version of the Ruby Slip and the fabric I've treated:

• I heard you all re: concerns about the properties of guipure. I went out today and bought 2 new types of mesh-based lace - one piece in a light navy and another in black. I will make the next slip using one of these. (And for the one after that - the gathered bodice version - I'll use the other piece.)
  
• In the end, neither the guipure nor silk swatches I hand-washed yesterday either a) bled colour or b) shrank in the least. Intriguing. The silk did change texture somewhat (not that I've ironed the swatch as yet, so the change may not be as pronounced as I'm currently imagining). Even with texture change, and slight loss of sheen, I opted to wash the rest of it by hand because I'm really not prepared to dry-clean. If fading or mega-shrinkage were in the cards, or if the fabric were to be fundamentally destroyed by water, I'd go that route. But it's just not the case. Will the silk look unaltered by this treatment? No. But you've all given me the confidence to try this method - and to recognize that there's not just one way to view silk.

So, if anyone has words of encouragement or advice (anything technical is welcome :-)) please chime in. If you've done the Colette Palette Challenges or a similar version, I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Interim Update: Prepping Delicate Fabrics

Thank you so much, everyone, for taking the time to share your experience and expertise re: caring for delicate fabrics.

Here's what I can tell you so far:

• Marina, I take your point about the challenging quality of guipure. The key (or so I think at this point) is to make sure that one cuts to the outside of the stabilizing grid that contains the lace, otherwise it really starts to fall apart.
  
• My goal is to use those grids as the anchor for sewing it some stabilizing underlining. My current options are some black power net with stretch 2-way stretch, some navy bra "wing" fabric (the stuff that makes the sides of your bra that attach to the cups on one side and the closure on the other) and some black mesh with no stretch.
• The best drape is in the power net with a firm, 2-way stretch (but I'm not sure if I should be aiming to use a stable fabric with no stretch). I just don't want the underlayer to make the very drapey lace fall stiffly. Thoughts?
• There's another alternative - that I might use the guipure to make the lace border for the gathered bodice version of the slip. This would minimize its structural element, while retaining the beautiful border.
  
• I have hand-washed 2 swatches: one of the silk and one of the lace; both are currently air drying.
• Neither appears to have bled much colour at all into the soapy water - maybe the guipure released a bit of dye.
• Both seem as dark as they were, but they're wet.
• I'll let you know about shrinkage/hand/sheen etc. when they dry.
  

Shout Out to the Experts: Prepping Delicate Fabrics

I'm mentally (and technically) preparing myself for the next iteration of the Ruby Slip. This is the one that will use guipure lace and the most lovely, navy, silk charmeuse I've ever seen. Really, the hand on this stuff is awesome.


(Brief aside, for those who are unfamiliar with guipure - count me amongst yourselves: It's a rather sassy lace - it's not backed with netting in the way of "regular" lace. The stuff I bought is quite robust. I am concerned about the volume, but I love it so much, I'm going to throw caution to the wind.)

Here is my question with rationale (broken up into numerous sections?!):

• I've looked through Claire Schaeffer's book to determine the best way to treat these fabrics. My hope was to wash them by hand before sewing as they both tend to shrink quite a bit. Alas, Ms. Schaeffer advises that dark-coloured silk tends to fade when hand-washed, and the satin shine dulls. Deal is, it will likely wreck that extremely luxe thing it's got going on.
  
• I don't like dry-cleaning. I used to dry-clean everything until I realized it was poison and it doesn't so much clean your clothes as toxify them. I also don't like paying for the pleasure. And really, I've had some clothing ruined due to harsh handling when dry-cleaned, though not recently.
• But I don't want to mess with the fabulous sheen and fall of the silk, the drape of the lace.
• How would y'all procede: suck it up and dry clean (infrequently)? Or hand wash and risk disaster?

Side question:

• Any of you who've sewn with guipure, please provide your insights. I believe it's popular in bridal tailoring (which is likely why Sherry, formerly a creator of wedding wear, was able to enlighten me about it's pedigree). What are your feelings about it? Is it a challenge, a pleasure - or something in between.
  

Slip Half Full

If you can make heads or tails of the meaning of this post's title then I salute you!

But never mind you, friends. This is all about a little lady named Ruby... (Grab a drink, this is going to take a while):

I understitched the bodice to the skirt to give it a bit more structure, and to help to stabilize the lace.

See how much longer my bodice is than the original version? That's what happens when you add a bunch of inches to accommodate a full bust.

(All the best slips have mood lighting.)

I actually think the dress form looks a little sexy here. Is that possible??

Can you say gratuitous self indulgence??

The Good:

• It's a wearable muslin, which is more than I can say about any other lingerie garment I've made before.
• It's really pretty.
• It's not hideously made - but I used cheap materials and you should never do that if you want something to turn out well. Note: If I'd used expensive materials and this thing fucked up, I'd want to kill myself, so it was a calculated trade off.
• The thread could not have been a better-matched shade if I tried (it was in my stash?!). It means some of the dubious bodice seam sewing looks just fine when it really should not.
• My franken-version of an FBA didn't work out half bad!
  

The Bad:

• It really needs a bit more length in the bodice to actually seam at the narrowest part of my underbust. I have already cut the next version of the pattern, adding 0.5" to the bodice pieces. I hope that will work. It doesn't look that way on the dress form because the boobs on the form are slightly smaller than mine (and the ass is slightly larger, while we're clarifying).
• I used cheap material and I'm sure it will impair the longevity of this wearable muslin. People, cheap lace is not strong. Keep this in mind. If I were able to make this slip without modification, I would only use the best lace. Hell, next time I make it I'm using the best lace.

Additional Info:

• The short version is too short, IMO - and you know I'm not tall. I'm going to need to recut the skirt for the long version. (Note to self: Don't forget to recut the skirt for the longer size.
• The bra straps work really well, as long as the lace to which you affix them has substance.
• Handkerchief hems on bias skirts, using fabric that doesn't like to press are rather labour-intensive. Nonetheless, I like the finished effect.
• I've adjusted the body so tremendously that I can't figure out exactly where the centre front notches should go anymore. I have tried to reason it out but my brain is tired.
• I used a bra-making method to sew the bodice seams, which I think is slightly different from the many good seam-finishing methods that Sherry suggests. Because I didn't want any bulk at all, and because I know from past experience that closely top stitched seams on lace don't fray, I pressed open the seams (after checking fit 8 zillion times), topstitched about 1/8" from the seam and then used applique scissors to cut the seam allowance very close to the top stitched seam on the wrong side of the garment. I didn't overlock those seams.
  
• It wouldn't have been a bad idea to underline the weak lace with power net (which I have) but I didn't know what I was doing and I didn't want to deviate too much from the plan.
  
• I only increased the circumference of the skirt by about an inch on the front (divided over the 2 side seams). I did this to accommodate the reasonably small amount of extra width of the bodice (the result of the FBA). In a perfect world there would be no increase of underbust measurement but it's pretty tricky to make something this fitted with vastly divergent needs at underbust vs full bust. Remember, I've got almost a 5" difference in those measurements as a result of large breasts and a narrow frame. It's a challenging alteration.
• I actually unstitched the seam of the skirt to the bodice after serging the seam, to get back about 1/4 of an inch of length. This is one of the reasons that I understitched. I felt it really needed some reinforcement.
  

Man, I'm tired.

Please write me a comment and tell me that you love this - or say anything else you'd like. Let's talk!