Almost Done on a Global Scale

Part 2 of the Watermelon (1960s) suit.

First of all I am extremely pleased with myself for managing to get a skirt and jacket out of 2yds of fabric. This is all that is left from the 2yd piece and I'm feeling very self-righteous at my lack of waste. Just enough to add two patch pockets to the jacket if I want and cover those buttons (?).

However, I do not like stashes. While I love being surrounded by fabric, having to choose a pattern or garment that only requires the yardage I possess was a troublesome thing. I don't want to make just a skirt for example, because then I have too much fabric left over that can't be used for anything else and so is wasted and this goes against the grain (!) In future I shall resort to my previous plan of choosing a pattern and buying exactly what I need. Sorry fabric stashers, maybe there's a learning curve involved here that I haven't mastered yet. Enlightened me if you can.....

 I took all your advice on board and hope I've satisfied everyone with my choice. I couldn't decide on whether to go for fabric covered buttons or big and fancy and I think I've hit the middle ground. These mega beauties are winging their way to me from Australia at this moment via Etsy. They are described as being "watermelon" colour and a whooping 36mm in diameter. So colour matching (covered version) and elaborate enough for fancy. I just hope they're not too pink against my fabric.

So here is the almost finished suit - just waiting on buttons. In the following pics I am holding the jacket over, so just try to imagine it buttoned. The collar can be folded down as in these pics but is also stiff enough to stand up as in the original design. I like versatility.

I took out about 15cm (6") from the back - I made a massive dart that was trimmed down - so that the jacket would sit closer to the body than the original and shortened the raglan sleeves to 3/4 length for that retro 60s feel. I also fully lined the jacket, otherwise V1127 is unchanged.

The suit is teamed with a blouse V2912. This has a retro 1960/70 floral print thing that suits the era I was aiming for. I just love finding old things in the wardrobe that match new things - it's like giving them a new lease of life.

When I made the blouse I also covered a few cheap bangles with the left overs - so I have bangles that match the suit too.


This darling suit has cost me the grand total of:
Fabric    £10
Lining   £5  
Thread  £3
Zip        £2  
Buttons £8
Total    £28   ($44 approx)   - NO WASTE - 100% wool and totally unique


What a good girl am I?

Unfortunately, my piousness was short lived. I mapped out where all these items originated or where sent from and just look below......

Fabric was made in Uruguay and shipped to the States, bought by me, so shipped on to N. Ireland.
Lining was bought in Belfast, but best guess is that it was made in China.
Thread is Gutterman, so came from Germany.
Buttons are in Australia and being sent to N. Ireland.

A truly global effort - but think of the transport and fuel costs etc etc etc.
Why is nothing simple?

Thanks for reading. Ruth

Watermelon

Chanel 2012 (JBB)

Doobee posted the other day about where she finds inspiration from - and boy she can not only find it at risk to her personal safety but also uses it. So I got to thinking about where the inspiration comes from. Mostly I pick ideas up from the Internet - other blogs, reviews and the like including a quirky French blog I follow - Folie de Mode - where JBB takes surreptitious photographs around Paris including the windows of the big designer houses. At the beginning of January she posted this image taken at Chanel. I fell in love with this suit, not just because it is Chanel though that's a big reason, but I loved the skirt - that extra panel at the bottom just made a plain pencil skirt a little bit different.

Chanel 2012

Then lo and behold at Fashion Week, what walks down the catwalk (runway) but the same suit. Note the button changes for the fashion show compared to the window display.

This was going to be my next project. Now that I have a stash - I dutifully selected one of the Shetland wools called deliciously, Watermelon, and set to. Got a problem. I only ordered 2 yds (2.2m) and this is very limiting when you want to make a below knee skirt and jacket to match. Careful pattern selection, placement and cutting is essential. 

Burda 01/2012

Around the same time I purchased Burda magazine and they featured a 6 gore pencil skirt. It's supposed to be made up in their lingerie section but when have I ever listened to advice? Looking closely at the Chanel skirt - it has a centre seam (which I don't like) and a yoke (which I do). So using the 6 panel skirt pattern I looked for a yoke. This probably falls into the vintage era: a 1980s DKNY American Designer pattern, but the centre skirt has a yoke. And better still it's 6 panels! Perfect.

 So the yoke from Donna, the skirt pattern from Burda - appropriately modified to allow for the yoke- and off we go.  I opted for a side zip instead of a back placement to keep the yoke intact.



While making up I decided to add a few extra touches. All the front and back seams are topstiched and just sit back and admire the matching of those seams. I added the bottom panel, just like Chanel, but put in a small kick pleat at the back so that I could walk.

The zip is an old fashioned non-invisible one so I put this in by hand and that's when I went retro......
I needed a jacket that didn't use up too much fabric but looked right with a straight skirt. So internet image hunting produced some further inspiration. I've moved a decade from the late 1940s (vintage suit) to the early 1960s

There's Jackie O in nearly the same colour as my suit - must be an omen!  I like the Butterick pattern on the right, but I wanted to sew this weekend not wait around for a pattern to arrive via post. So I went to my pattern stash - oh yes I have one of those - and dug out Vogue 1127 for the jacket. The jacket is unlined apart from the sleeves in the pattern instructions but I line most of my clothes and this was not going to be the exception. 

To make a lining for a jacket without specific pieces is easy. Just cut the same pattern pieces in the lining but remove the extra for the front facings. Lay the front facing piece on the cut lining and mark in 1.5cm (5/8") for seam allowance. Stitch the front facing to the lining and then sew the lining and the jacket together at the edges, right sides together. Do not sew the hem. Then turn right way out and voila! a lined jacket. You might have to put a small pleat in here and there but this helps with ease when wearing the jacket. I went for the 3/4 sleeve length again

The skirt is finished - ready for a final press but the jacket needs hemming on the sleeves and bottom. I'm at a dilemma about the buttons though. 

What do you think? Covered as in catwalk style or large and fancy for statement?

Thanks for reading. Ruth

Vintage a la mode

This was not a suit of two halves:

Vintage Vogue 2476 - original from 1949
now OOP

Jacket

• Muslin mock-up
• 18 pattern pieces (cut twice)
• 10 weeks of (intermittent) hard labour
• 2.5 m fabric
• 2.5 m organza
• 2m lining
• 1.5m canvas interfacing
• 3m cotton tape
• 1m twill tape
• 600m navy thread
• 300m tacking (basting) thread
• 4 steel buttons 
• 3 hand sewing needles
• wax
• 6 pints water (steam pressing)
• Bleeding fingers
• Frustration - Ennui - Perseverance

Skirt

• 1.7m fabric
• 1.7m lining
• 4 pattern pieces (cut twice)
• 200m navy thread
• 1 zip
• Length of interfacing
• 2.5 m twill tape
• 3 hours - cutting out, sewing, trying on and pressing

Notice the difference?

The pattern says advanced and most definitely this applies to the jacket, but the skirt is tres facile!

The jacket as was last seen but with shoulder pads and sleeve heads attached.

Say goodbye to all that hard work and say hello to 

vintage a la mode......

 The lining of the skirt can just be seen here as I straighten the seam on my 1940s stockings - it matches the jacket.


But look, I can move in this fitted jacket! I can bend and stretch and sit without too many puckers or wrinkles.

It is a jacket that buttons high up so no blouse is required underneath, just a lovely 1940 style silk camisole (if I had one).

And the shoes.... These are almost as old as the pattern that I've forgotten where they came from. I call them my "cartoon shoes" 'cause they remind me of a female cartoon character's footwear. Anyway, they're navy, so match the suit and I noticed the other day in a movie that two-tone court shoes were popular in the 1940-50s - so quite in keeping with the era, I think.

Oh, there are wrinkles on the sides of the jacket where there shouldn't be, I machined the skirt hem instead of slip stitching, the points on the lapels are not sharp (in fact they don't resemble the pattern at all), my bound button holes do not deserve a close up, etc, etc, etc.... but boy! do I feel a million dollars in this suit. It is comfortable, smart and most importantly - FINISHED.


Problem is - what do I do now?

Thanks for reading. Ruth

  

Chanel No 1

When I brought Doris home, patched her up and gave her the honoured position in the sewing room, I thought I had been transported to an atelier in the Rue Cambon. So one of the first projects just had to be a Chanel suit - what else?

I read every blog at the time on Chanel construction techniques and bought the Claire B. Schaeffer books on couture sewing - read cover to cover and back again.

Fearless, and completely innocent I went straight for the shell fabric - no mucking about with toiles (muslins) for me. The pattern was Claire Schaeffer's own couture jacket, which sadly is completely out of print - not even available from the Vogue web page, so I'll have to take great care with mine.

So this gallant premiere main proceeded undaunted - removed the stand-up collar, skipped most of the facings and interfacings for a genuine Chanel look of round neck line and edge to edge lining.

The fabric came from a local fabric shop and I thought at the time that it sort of looked Chanelish - being wool and checked and sort of tweedish.

Construction  went pretty well considering I hadn't a clue. As usual, choosing suitable buttons was beyond me so I opted for the covered version.

The trim was made from lengths of the fabric, sewn over on one edge to stop fraying and then I sat for weeks deliberately fraying the other side, then sat for another few weeks sewing the stuff on by hand.

I'd bought plenty of fabric to allow for mistakes and ended up having enough to make a matching skirt. Pattern for this is forgotten but it's just a straight, below knee (keeping Coco in mind) side zipper skirt.












I think the suit looks more like country English librarian than Parisian chic, so I rarely wear the two together. The jacket is really comfy and goes well with jeans or plain dark brown wide-legged trousers (pants). The skirt is usually worn with a short slim-fitting dark brown suede jacket and dark brown boots.

The sleeves are three piece, with vents.

Handworked buttonholes and covered

buttons that are virtually invisible.

The trim goes all the way around the vent and all the pockets.

For a complete contrast, I made a blouse from the same fabric as the lining - as did Chanel.

Those of you who care about these sorts of things will notice that the 'black' side of the blouse matches the 'black' side of the lining on the left and white on white on the right hand side. That was pure fluke by the way!  The button holes on the inside were bound in this same fabric.

I went a bit anal on the blouse.
On the right is the side seam and I matched up the flowers from front to back - sad.......






Did the whole quilting thing with the lining and of course the famous brass chain for weight. I must admit this really does make a difference to the hang of the jacket, though it weights a tonne when you're carrying it.

I had to do a few other things which I can't really remember now how I did them but I had to edge the hem and the inside neck line with a bias strip because I wasn't following the exact pattern instructions.

Oh, and as I cannot leave a scrap of fabric untouched, the remainder of the blouse fabric became a scarf that ties in a bow at the neck to complete the prim and proper look.

Thanks for reading. Ruth