Lanvin DIY the Tweed pearl necklace

It's only $775, it looks pretty cute with the red shorts and white silk shirt.  I think it's a lovely use of tweed scrap and with the good stuff going for $50 a yard and upwards, why not make yourself a coordinating necklace.  I will have to make one to match my some day boucle.

Another Giveaway!! Patterns

Clearing out my pattern stash once again!!  This will run to Midnight Wednesday May 30th.

Leave a comment with the item number you are interested in, winners will be picked at random!

1) Vogue 8620 Marci Tilton Jacket 16-22

2) Vogue 8470 Vogue Easy Options 8-16

3) Vogue 1091 Tom and Linda Platt 18-24

4) Vogue 1227 Rebecca Taylor 12-18

5) Butterick 6582 18-22

6) New Look 6557 8-18

7) Vogue 1189 Rebecca Taylor 16-22

Chanel jacket progress Trim

We are getting closer to the end, the sleeve trim has to be stitched. The buttonholes are something to consider since this is just the test garment, so I want hand stitched buttonholes or do we want to try the "hand stitched" setting on my vintage buttonholer and see what that looks like.

The next major operation will be the pockets. If you remember, the original jacket had rectangular pockets oriented in landscape, so that the longer edge was at the top and bottom. I've experimented with another shape and placement ideas. Then there will the matter of trim to consider whether the fringe and braid will be carried on to the pocket, and whether to include buttons.

The pocket placement above is towards the side seams and below, they are brought in towards the center a bit more.  They look a bit small compared to the pattern envelope, but I like the shape, it repeats the soft curve at the center front.

The next major operation will be the pockets. If you remember, the original jacket had rectangular pockets oriented in landscape, so that the longer edge was at the top and bottom. I've experimented with another shape and placement ideas. Then there will the matter of trim to consider whether the fringe and braid will be carried on to the pocket, and whether to include buttons. If you're a Prada fan, you have to watch this video (aprox 3 minutes) "A Therapy"

What do you get for $1,041 ? Snoop Shopping

I went snoop shopping at an outlet, and found a jacket for $1,041 (marked down from $2,900, a steal, a bargain) from a famous designer label.  I can't find a photo of it on the web to date it, so let's say it's from a few seasons ago.  Yes entirely too small for me, but I thought cute.



 Now when I say cute, I did not warm up to the print (which reminded me of my grandmother's curtains), but the fabric itself was soft and very snuggle worthy. I also liked the chunky lace, especially since I have so much lace in my stash, I'm always looking for ways to use it. Here's where the fun begins. Construction details.






There are exactly two darts at the back neck.

There may be some shaping hidden at the lace insert seams, but it's very slight.

The sleeves are two piece with an overarm seam.  I really liked the sleeves.

The collar piece is finished with the overcast and lapped over the neckline. (Very interesting)

Seam allowances are finished with an overcast stitch as well as other raw edges around the insert area, but they didn't stop there, the center front edge as well as the sleeve edge, pocket edge & flap and collar have the same treatment.

There are self facings turned up at the hem.

Separate facings at the neck, center front, and sleeve.

Center front and collar are interfaced with what might be organza or a lightweight satin.

The front closing consists of 4 large snaps.

So I say dust off those sergers and get working on jacket.

Textile envy....

Do you ever look at some of runway garments and think, well yeah that's a simple little frock but look at the fabric there is no way I can ever make that.  That's what I was thinking when I saw this.  Now I would pick other colors but, these designers have textile firms print up their colors and designs for them.

Look at how cute it is under a jacket. 

Here's the back.  

 I mean how hard can it be? I could never make it though.... because I'd spend all my efforts online shopping for it and never find a suitable stripe, or decent fiber content, but why stop now, why not take an even closer look to torture myself some more

.

Hey wait a minute, do you see what I see? This puppy is pieced, you can make it out of anything you'd like.
Victory!!


This top is by Chloe on net-a-porter.com.
I figured since I can't sew again for a while, I'd do some snoop shopping.

Fit issue - upper bust shoulder area

Did you ever have this problem?

Part one of this issue is that the dress form has no arms so it doesn't fill out the sleeve cap, but once you put the jacket on it's more apparent.  You can almost see the excess on the dress form, so it's giving you a hint.

 The issues are corrected on the opposite side. That collapsing area is excess fabric vertically, which means that the shoulder should be taken in (or up). Here is the original shoulder (I had made an adjustment to the pattern as my shoulders have a squared angle vs  the pattern's).

Original

  To correct the excess fabric, the front shoulder was shortened. The back shoulder remained untouched as it was smooth from the back, and needed no adjustments. This adjustment affects the sleeve cap and will give you more fullness in the cap. 

 

Corrected

 I don't mind the fullness so it will be left in.

 Of course this will need further adjusting if the shoulder pad is taken out.  It's interesting to note that this is only a 1/2" difference to the front cap.  Since most of us struggle with the excess ease in the big 4 patterns this is good to note.  I feel a sleeve cap ease tutorial coming on.

Bill Blass 2463 muslin progress - sleeves

The sleeves are pin basted, and the shoulder pads are in place.  I'm not sure how I feel about the fit.

The sleeves are much narrower than I thought but looking at the envelope, it's in a fabric with drape, so it's deceiving.

From "Adonising" Dressing for Dinner

The issue I'm having is the area from the sleeve cap to midway between the shoulder and bust point. It is collapsing, so I'll have to pull the shoulders up to eliminate the excess.  I may eliminate the shoulder pads altogether, since it looks a bit square on me.


   The back looks good even on the body.  The two piece sleeve has a nice curve to it.  I will have to shorten it a little, about 2".  The FBA adjustment shortened the front piece about 2" and I will shorten it in addition to that.

Slowly but surely we're making progress here, and I'm sure to find the collar once the furniture is back in it's place.  Plumbing issues are never any fun.

Continued here... Fitting upper bust

Padding out dress forms

My Wolf dress form is a size 8, what does that mean?  It's measurements are 35" - 26.5" - 37", there used to be a time when it was too large for me, not any more.  When I took my moulage class with Kenneth King I created a cover that was used to stuff the dress form.

Held in place by sticky clear film used for wrapping boxes.  This was done for two reasons, one was to keep the batting fibers from getting stuck in the zipper and the other was to help mold the and reinforce the shape of the dress form.  In some areas there is a 6" difference.

Layers of batting

It worked at the beginning but after a time the batting shifted and crushed and no longer resembled my shape, (even though it was close in dimension).  So I found another dress form closer to my size, and restuffed her.  This time, I would need less batting and tried to follow the natural curves of the underlying dress form.  I draped the batting over the dress form, complete with hand basted darts,

The darts are trimmed and opened

The batting turned inside out.

                                The cover slipped on again and voila something closer to my shape.  On the first version the shoulders sloped too much and would require further adjustment on me.  What I really need is pads for the arms which will come further down the road.

Jacket progress has been slow but hopefully I'll be able to get back to them soon, here's a teaser of what's been done so far.

Trend Spring 2012 color blocking

Plumbing issues are keeping any progress on the jackets at bay, but here are some really interesting color blocking ideas from Net-a-Porter.  These are a terrific use of fabrics that you loved but don't have enough left over to make anything from.

Preen has a stretch satin body and jersey sleeves, the Giambattista top is actually a knit but can be made up in practically any fabric.
Elizabeth and James - Silk Chiffon
DVF - Silk Crepe
Victoria Beckham - Jersey
Chloe - Silk Crepe




So get back to that stash and see what leftovers you have, they're not just for stuffing small sewing projects.

Did you ever want to have tea with Royalty?

I love Whittards tea and while perusing their US website, I found these and had to share.
It appears that they have snubbed Kate who is not part of the pack :(



Here at Whittards.

Still playing....Chanel jacket buttons

Buttons can be a prominent feature of the jacket or they can fade away.  Most of the Chanel buttons are little works of art... there aren't any of those in the stash.  So here are some fun examples of buttons and some more crazy embellishments.

Flower buttons

Little round silver dome buttons

Black knot buttons

Sequin motifs 

This jacket has had many moods....