Monday, March 18, 2024

A Classic Gored Wool Skirt

While it may not be the most interesting item in the world to make, a black wool skirt is certainly a useful one.

I have been meaning to try Vogue 1961 for some time, and it seemed like a good option for the textured black wool I specifically purchased for a long skirt last year.

I did decide to add some extra length to the skirt.  Although the model looks like she's tall, and the skirt is a nice tea length, when holding the pattern pieces up to my body, it just didn't look like they were going to be that long.

I was also concerned that a lightweight rayon lining was going to drape differently than the wool and potentially need to be hemmed much shorter to keep the lining from peaking out of the skirt during wear.  Although I haven't ever underlined a skirt in this manner before, I thought that I might as well give it a try.

So before any of the construction began, the main task was to hand baste the layer of wool to the rayon lining.  If you have followed me for any period of time, you are already aware of my love of hand sewing . . . but this amount of basting one black layer of fabric to another was slightly tedious, even for me.  After working with a length of black thread, I quickly realized that using a contrasting basting thread was going to be a whole lot easier on my eyes!

Once that process was complete, the project was very straight forward, sewing each gore to the next.  Since this would be underlined instead of lined, I finished my raw edges with rayon seam binding.

Whether the small amount of exposed wool in the seam allowance would be itchy on my skin was something I thought about, but in the end, decided would not be too much of a problem.

The pattern instructions suggest an invisible zipper, and since this is a princess seam finished with a facing, I decided to go for the invisible zipper.

I ended up adding a few pieces of plastic boning to the facing to keep the upper edge from collapsing.

This has become a standard addition to most of my skirts, and while it takes a little bit of extra effort, I have never been disappointed with the technique.

I also added a lightweight fusible interfacing to the facing.

And if you think that I am going to spend my time removing all of those basting threads, you would be wrong!

Honestly, it's rare that I remove any basting threads unless they are visible from the outside of the garment.

The facing was tacked in place along each seamline.

For the hem, I hand stitched the two layers of fabric together just inside the hemline.  This keeps the layers from separating and shifting as the hemline is folded and stitched into place.

And here is my classic black wool skirt.

This garment has definitely come in handy this Winter.  The textured wool does have a tendency to show lint, but that's just part of wearing dark colored wools, I guess!


Saturday, March 9, 2024

Fluffy Fibers

My knitting projects as of late have been more of the easy to wear type.  I find that I gravitate towards a comfy sweater on rainy days when I wish I didn't have to get out of bed because of the soggy mess outside.  Those are the knits that I pick over and over again during the Winter months.

And I do have a few of those options in my wardrobe, and more hand knit versions have been added to the collection over the years.  But what most of them have in common is that they are darker in color, with a few bright pink exceptions.  So when I decided that a lighter pastel should join the group, this lovely robin's egg blue/turquoise colored yarn seemed like an excellent choice.

I had to check my notebook where I keep track of my sewing and knitting projects, but this sweater was started back in December 2021.  While the knitting did not take very long, it did take an eternity to get around to blocking and eventually wearing the finished knit.  But once I started wearing it this Winter, I couldn't get enough.

This is not my first project using KnitPicks "Wonderfluff" and it probably won't be my last.  While this particular color seems to shed a tiny bit more than the pink and forest green sweaters that I have made, it is rather miraculous how little it does transfer to other items of clothing, like dark colored wool jackets.  For something that looks rather angora-esque, it behaves nothing like that fuzzy, shed-happy fiber.

For the pattern, I decided to make another "Cherie" since I get so much wear out of the previous version that I made.

It's not the most exciting knitting project in the world, but it sure is relaxing to work with a fuzzy fiber in stockinette stitch. 

And I'm not sure that a massively textured pattern would be shown to its best advantage in a yarn with this much aura.

I do have a few skeins in a lavendar hue, so perhaps I will test that theory next Winter.

But for now, I'm quite content with this classic style sweater to keep me nice and snug on a cold day.


Monday, March 4, 2024

Cabbage Roses on a Field of Velvet

I thought that a floral themed velvet was an appropriate outfit choice for a day at the Legion of Honor to see the Botticelli exhibit, and so the first outing for this dress just happened to be at a museum.

The day was rather gloomy with quite a bit of rain, but my Mom and I made the journey to San Francisco to spend the afternoon exploring the galleries.

My main reservation about this dress was the fiber content.  I am not a fan of polyester, and I avoid it as much as I can.  But I was stuck on the thought that this design would look great in a floral velvet, and since the pattern requires a knit fabric, it was impossible to find anything that fit the bill other than polyester.

I have been wearing a silk slip under this dress, so it minimizes the amount of polyester that I feel on my skin, and while I can't say whether it's this particular fabric, or the fact that I'm wearing an underlay, it's less plasticy than I was expecting.  So that's a relief.

As for the changes that I made to this version of Vogue 1907, they are minimal to the overall look, so anyone who has an eye for style lines would easily be able to tell that they are the same pattern.  But I do think playing around with the design was worth the extra effort.

The addition of the band that extends into a tie at center back stitched into the underbust seam works very well.

As for the sleeves, I shouldn't have shortened the length quite as much.  The shoulder seams sit slightly in, and the length of the pattern piece made me think that it was going to be extremely long.

That aside, the pointed sleeve hem does work.  The point has a tendency to rotate slightly toward the outside of my hand, so if I was to do this again, I might cheat the point a bit away from the center line.

But I think that I will leave it for now.

And I really do love the colors and the print, and the silhouette is really easy to wear . . . so overall, this was a successful project.


Dress:  Made by me, Vogue 1907
Earrings:  Nicky Butler
Shoes:  Royal Vintage

Saturday, February 17, 2024

Floral Velvet

This is the second version of Vogue 1907 that I have made and I posted a lot of the process over on Instagram.  I'm not all that proficient with knits, but I was drawn to this pattern when it was released, and I decided to finally get to it with a sweater knit that I had in the stash for a long time.  And then things got complicated with Mr. Tino.

I went to work with essentially no sleep that Friday, and finally managed to exhaust myself enough during the day to fall asleep for more than a few hours that evening.  When I woke up Saturday, I knew that I needed something to keep me distracted, and my hands busy.

This project seemed like a good option where nothing was too complicated or was going to be super involved.  I also feel like this print reminded me of two dresses from the late 90s, one printed rayon velvet Nostalgia brand dress that Elaine from Seinfeld would have felt right at home in, and one rayon challis print that I made early on in my garment making journey with a winding oversized rose pattern.  Velvet also seemed comforting in some way, even if this knit is polyester, and I don't have the greatest history with velvet sewing projects going my way . . . but my grief-addled brain wasn't really thinking in a logical way.

I did finally get around to trying a rotary cutter with a knit on my cutting mat that hadn't ever seen a blade, and used pattern weights that I picked up last year at an estate sale.  I am not completely sold on the technique, but it does give a nice clean edge, so maybe I just need to give the rotary cutter another chance.

As with every other knit fabric I have stitched together (with the exception of my Alabama Chanin inspired outfits) I used my machine to stitch the seam and then went back with the serger to trim a small amount off the edge to keep that cut edge from rolling.

I suspected that this knit velvet textile might be a bit less problematic to work with than a silk or rayon velvet, and I was right.  There wasn't a lot of fighting to keep edges even as it fed through the machine, although it was not quite as well behaved as a crisp woven cotton, for instance.

Instead of that plastic stuff that I have seen used to stabilize knits at the shoulder seam, I like to use a length of rayon seam binding, since I have plenty of that stuff on hand.

The fabric also gathered down nicely, even with the added bulk of the velvet nap.

Since I just made this dress in a similar color (although it is a solid) I wanted to do something slightly different with this version.

The first thought that came to mind was to add a point to the sleeve cuff.  I extended the sleeve by drafting a small addition to the pattern piece.  To finish that new shaped edge, I cut a duplicate of that addition and used it as a facing piece after adding a lightweight fusible interfacing.

The skirt came together easily with the same technique of stitching with a narrow zig-zag on the sewing machine, and finishing the edges with a serger.  The sweater knit did not drop on the bias, but I made sure to give this velvet a chance to stretch before hemming it.  Turns out, this one didn't need any evening out, either.

After leaving the skirt to hang on the dress form, it was time to get back to the bodice.

As with the previous version, I extended the collar by an inch, just because the versions shown on the pattern envelope made the collar look slightly chintzy, in my opinion.  Having just a bit more fabric to pool around the neckline worked fine, and I think I prefer it this way.

I was curious to see how this would look on the dress form, but this was probably a mistake.  Stretching the unfinished lower edge over the wider part of the form stretched the fabric slightly so that it wanted to curl under.  This made attaching the bodice to the skirt slightly more aggravating than it would have been had I not stretched that lower edge prior to stitching the seamline.  But that's just something to remember for next time.  And I suppose it depends on the textile, because the sweater knit didn't do this.

For the second change to the pattern, I wanted to add a band to the high waisted seamline that would extend into two ties and would drape down the back of the dress.

I cut two ties on the bias (not certain that the bias was necessary considering that this is a stretch fabric) and folded it wrong sides together.  At this point, I was unsure how much length that I wanted, so I wrapped the pieces around the dress form to get an idea of how large I wanted the bow, and how much length I wanted for the ties.

The portion of the ties that would drape down the back were finished, while the section that would be sandwiched in the waist seamline were left raw.

The remaining raw edges were serged and hand stitched into place for the sleeve facing hem, and the skirt hemline.

While this dress clearly resembles the previous version, both in color and style, I am glad that I made a floral velvet version.

I have already worn this dress twice in the last couple of weeks, and it makes an easy-to-wear, yet still put together outfit which is always nice for the dreary Winter weather.  Am I suddenly sold on polyester?  Absolutely not.  But this print was special enough to make an exception for . . . and since I always plan on wearing a silk slip underneath, the feel of the synthetic material is made a lot more bearable.

And while I desperately miss my furry companion interrupting my sewing progress throughout the day and reminding me to take a break, having something to focus on is extremely helpful (although maybe not the healthiest way of coping).  I am still struggling in moments where I am not multitasking at work, or completely distracted by something else other than missing his little face and tiny warm body keeping me on the couch, whether I liked it or not.  Thank you to everyone for your lovely words about my little man.  My world has changed, although I am extremely mindful of the fact that I wouldn't trade the sixteen-plus years I had with him for anything.