Friday, March 23, 2012

Silk and Coutil for a customer


The coutil is imported, and extremely stiff in its weave.  Even soaking it in water doesn't alter the texture very much, as I'd thought it was stiff due to sizing.  It is beautiful.  The silk dupioni is a lovely shade of lavender.

Saturday, March 17, 2012

St. Patrick's Day Dress

Pattern: Simplicity New Look 6457, View C
Year: 2005
Fabric: Something purchased for something else, plus something else purchased also for something else.
(A dress is better than a placemat.)
Cost: Pattern was from stash, fabric, about $15.00 spaced over the last 4 months.  Plus $2.50 for the up-and-coming mathcing petticoat.  So, I'd say, just under $20 total.
Time to Complete: About 2 days, off and on.
Mods: Lengthened the bodice front and back considerably (2-4 or so); added a side dart to more shape the bust area, which then unintentionally raised the v-neck, unfortunately.  So now, it looks a little matronly with the sweater.  Oh well.  I'll have to see what it looks like on.
Worn: Not yet.  Needs a zipper.
I whipped this one together in couple days, except it still needs a zipper, so until then, it's sitting on my mannequin.   The sweater is Talbot's via the Salvation Army, angora/viscose/wool.  Perfect!  The little shamrock pin was my grandma's, and the beads are vintage.

Sunday, March 11, 2012

Fresh Air Blouse- Sew Weekly

“Retro” for me often means 1870 or ’90, so, my first thought when I saw this challenge was “Winslow Homer”.  I found this maiden tending her sheep in a brown skirt kind of fetching, and her (obviously) light-weight, cotton batiste, pale, blue shirt is just killer.  
Fresh Air - Winslow Homer - 1878

Pattern: McCalls 5050 Blouse, View D
Year: 2006
Mods: Replaced the two sleeve ruffles with my own Morning Glory Webbed Flounce
Fabric:  Pale Blue Cotton, on sale $3.00/yard; 2.5 yards
Cost:  About $10.00 ( $1 for pattern, $7.50 for fabric, random stash for haberdash)
Time to Make: 2 days (off and on) for the sleeves, 1 hour for main construction, hemming, etc.
Worn: March 10, 2012, to a friend's house for dinner.  We covered it with a towel to not ruin it with nibbles.
Wear Again: Yes!  Can't wait!

I don’t usually go for literal interpretation unless I get a bee in my bonnet about it, and suddenly, this one all came together.

I thought of leaving off the webbed sleeves and just making them as the pattern intended, but what fun would that be?
I couldn’t give up the chance to actually accomplish their scrumptious webbiness.  I drew the intended shape, guess-timated the actual number of pieces for each sleeve cuff to be 7, although 8 or 9 would work nicely as well.  Soon, I had a whole pile of little sleeve bits to stitch together.

Sour Patch Bunnies really help the process along.
After fussy sleeves, the whole thing goes together in less than an hour, really.
So, off we went to find some sheep.  Except we couldn't find any sheep.  The nearest sheep farm is over an hour away, so my husband promised me some goats.  Except, it's cold and their weren't really any goats around for a Kodak moment, either.  So, I opted for a small, crumbly cemetery instead.  
I see dead people.

Dead people are not the same as cute lambs, so the whole thing's kind of skewed.  But my sleeves look fierce and that's all that matters.
Pardon me, Sir.