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Inspiration

The Hour – my new Fall style inspiration

I have a new style crush – The Hour, a new BBC drama starring Dominic “McNulty” West and Romola “her that wasn’t Keira in Atonement” Garai. Yes, there are a lot of comparisons with Mad Men, but it’s a fantastic show in its own right, and being set in 1956 London, barely out of rationing and in the publicly-funded BBC, means there’s a lot more quirk and ragged edges than you find in the ultra-slick Madison Avenue counterpart. The best part is that this series isn’t even about fashion – it’s about the shift in the purpose of television news around the time, where it went from being a government puppet supplying newsreels to a subversive, investigative element in its own right. It’s a riveting, wonderful show, and James is just as addicted as I am.

Still not interested yet? Well, you soon will be – American viewers, set your DVR of choice to record BBC America on 17 August at 10pm Eastern, because I have a feeling the style blogs are going to go nuts for this once it’s gone international (and UK viewers, you can watch the latest episode tonight on BBC2, or watch the previous episodes on iPlayer as it’s a series catchup show).

The thing I love most about the fashions on show here are that they’re not what you imagine 1950s fashion to be – this is as far removed from June Cleaver as you can get! Just like Mad Men changed our view of 1960s fashion from hippies and go-gos, The Hour takes us out of the mentality that the 1950s was all about Dior’s New Look silhouette. Think more British vintage style – impeccable pencil suits with nipped-in waists, stylish blouses and power dressing, plus a nod here and there to more noticeable 50s styles like the teddy-boy “Grease” look and even a Marilyn Monroe-a-like!

Inspiration, Magazine

KnipMode August 2011

As a subscriber, my KnipMode issues usually arrive in the first week of the month, like clockwork. But this month, I’d heard rumours that the August issue was delayed because of a printing error, so it wouldn’t be on Dutch news-stands until 15 July, meaning I probably wouldn’t get mine until a few days later. In hindsight, a few days here nor there really wasn’t going to improve this issue, as it’s a pretty mediocre one in my opinion. Lillian mentioned there’s a new woman in charge at Knipmode, so I certainly hope this is just a one-off boring issue instead of a worrying trend…

This issue starts off with a few lively Plus patterns, the star of which are these awesome jeans! They’ve got some great seaming on the leg, and the pocket edge is bias-bound, which I think is a nice feature, too.

I know Manequim do “celebrity” fashion a lot with their Brazilian soap stars, but it’s not really anything I go for in a magazine. If it’s a good pattern, it could be on a mannequin for all I care, and well, if it’s a bad pattern, putting it on a tango-orange glamour model isn’t going to make it any better. This was the best dress of the footballer’s wives collection of Z-list Dutch “celebrity” dresses…

In Progress

Totally discouraged…

I’ve been hard at work on my slow-moving self-drafted shirtdress, creating bound buttonholes for the spaces the collar passes through before tying, making french seams everywhere, double checking all the darts so they all line up, and finally I tried it on last night to check the hem and button placement.

And it’s horrible. Dumpy, unflattering, and just bad.

All I could think of was Trena’s “prison matron” dress, and like hers, mine’s got pockets, but that’s about it. I don’t even know if I can bring myself to finish it, but it’s sitting on my dressform for a while so I can mull over whether any of it is even salvageable. I just know there’s no way in hell I’m ripping out a million french seams! It’s got nothing to do with the Pattern Magic directions, as the collar is okay, it’s all down to the fit of the rest of the dress…

And the shirting is Prada, too! *whinge* And I made three muslins! *whinge* I did everything right, and the dress is just so very wrong. Which mostly discourages me from pattern drafting altogether. I mean, what’s the point in pattern drafting if the fit is worse than what I get straight off a pattern sheet? Because, really, Burda, Knip, and even Manequim fit me straight off the sheet, no alterations needed. Do I really need the extra hassle in my life to end up with a sub-par result even with all my designer finishing techniques? Am I happy to never be a pattern designer? These are the sort of questions I’m asking myself right now anyway.

Inspiration

Hokey Croquis & Fashionary tech drawing help

Last year I was sent a complimentary Hokey Croquis fashion sketching notebook as a thank you for being a contributor to the BurdaStyle book, and I never quite got around to telling you about it. Not because the product isn’t nice, but mostly because I haven’t done much drafting or designing until now where Ive needed to make my own tech drawings!

Hokey Croquis is a very sturdy, nicely designed, spiral bound notepad with pre-printed female croquis (those are the little drawings of female silhouettes), which you just draw your designs on top of. Then, you can scan in the page, fiddle with the contrast on your computer, and their lines disappear.

HC have really paid attention to the little details here – the book closes with a nice, pink ribbon, and included with the book are some classy stickers to customise the cover. I’ve noticed that Fashionary.org have a similar croquis notebook for sale, but they also have some free pdf downloads, too. I’ve not had a chance to try their book, but the croquis included in the pdf are a bit small for my liking. I think they’re great for getting a bunch of ideas down without wasting precious, thick pages in a book, but for making the final tech drawings, I think the larger, HC forms are better.

Gallery

A black and brown lacey lingerie set (and exclusive freebie!)

I think it was inevitable that I’d need a quick and fun distraction from all my pattern drafting and muslins, and nothing spells “quick” and “fun” like lingerie! Seriously, if you’ve never sewn lingerie, you won’t really understand the appeal, but playing with tiny bits of lace and trim is just so creative and rewarding, especially for ladies like me who really aren’t into embellishment elsewhere in their wardrobes.

Since it fit so well before, I used the same modified bra pattern from my purple hearts bra, though this time I used black, pushup foam cups and the black/brown Alice lingerie kit from The Sewing Chest.

The first step was to cover the cups with the rigid lace. The lace in the kit was 50cm long, with two scalloped edges, so I aligned a scalloped edge along the top of the cup, then pinned and smoothed and made a few needed pleats in order to get it looking nice. If the lace or covering material is stretchy, then you don’t need any pleats in it, but as mine was rigid, a few small pleats were necessary towards the bottom.

Here’s the covered and uncovered cups:

Then I did the same with the other cup, though I had to use the opposite scalloped edge so both cups were symmetrical. In bra making, symmetry is king!!

With a wide zigzag stitch, I basted the lace around all the edges and trimmed the excess. I actually went back later and added some stretched, narrow elastic on the inside of the top of the cups, but I’d recommend actually doing this, or applying FOE (foldover elastic) to the upper cup edge before stretching the lace over your cups to avoid a second line of zigzagging over the lace. Even if you think your cups are sturdy enough to not need the elastic, it really makes a difference in keeping the top of the cup close to your body and not getting any gaping.

Gallery

A functional KitchenAid mixer cover

Back in March, I joined the ranks of the middle class aspirational home cooks when James bought me a KitchenAid mixer for my birthday. I asked for (and received!) yes, a white one, because, while I like the red ones, they’re totally not worth £100 more just for the colour! Anyway, we were finally able to rearrange our tiny galley space to accommodate it so I finally broke it out of the box to make macarons last weekend.

The macarons were a resounding success (I also discovered the sole thing on earth that’s tastier than macarons – macaron batter!), but the only storage space for the mixer is out in the open, so I needed to sew a cover for it, lest I have to wash the dust off it every time I want to use it!

I was feeling supremely lazy, so rather than measure it myself, I just used the
tutorial and pattern here to sew up a really quick cover.

I made a few changes from the above site, though, the main being that mine is not quilted (it’s not like the mixer needs to stay warm!), and mine has a seam at the top since my print is directional and I didn’t want upside-down people on one side.

In Progress

Muslins, muslins everywhere…

…but not the time to sew!

I’ve had an incredibly busy week and weekend, between my whirlwind social life, an influx of new work at the office, hardcore boat DIY, moorings duties, and keeping up with my running, so I’ve hardly had any time to step foot in my sewing room, let alone sew! It doesn’t help that pattern drafting moves at a glacial pace as compared to just tracing off a pattern and sewing it up!

If you remember, I’m using Pattern Magic and the Bunka draft to revisit pattern drafting. So far I’ve made my bodice sloper and drafted up this variation from the first Pattern Magic book, “Tying a Bow D”.

This is one of about five designs across the books that I’d really like to make, but it’s also by far the simplest draft so I thought it’d be a good place to start. The only difference is that I want to a dress from this instead of a blouse, so I’ve also drafted up a skirt sloper and am just now starting to match up the darts to the bodice and insert some flare to make it usable for a nice shirtdress.

Gallery

A silk chrysanthemum Sorbetto blouse

Every now and then I mention a few people from my personal life when they enter into my sewing world for whatever reason, but regular readers will probably recognise the name of “Neighbour Helen” more than most. As a neighbour, close friend, and convenient fashion industry alumni, she’s helped me assess muslins, balance proportions, learn how to rotate darts, and she even drew the amazing illustration for my free ruffled wristlet pattern!

So I was very saddened to hear that she and her husband are moving their barge to France in a few weeks’ time, to travel through the French canals for the foreseeable future (ok, saddened and jealous!). Since it was also her birthday, my gift to her was to make her a silk blouse of her choosing.

She chose the gorgeous chrysanthemum silk that was leftover from my blouse and I even let her try mine on, but she felt my top was too blousy for her and requested a simple shell instead.

So I turned to the new (and free!) Colette Patterns Sorbetto top!

I made a few changes, though – the most obvious is that I eliminated the central pleat (which would have been too busy with the large scale print), and I lengthened hem by 3” as others said this came up short.

Inspiration, Magazine

Manequim July 2011

Hooray, the latest issue of the Brazilian pattern magazine, Manequim, has arrived! Even though our seasons are reversed, I’m finding plenty of styles in this issue that work well for English summers, even moreso than Burda magazine, which is aligned with our seasons (though is anyone else excited to see the return of Burda’s designer patterns? There were actually TWO patterns in the July issue that I’m tempted to make. Please oh please let this be the end of Burda’s slump!).

Manequim have started doing a little section at the front where they get a seamstress to help a poor damsel in distress to alter a Manequim pattern from a few months ago to suit their needs. I let out an audible squeal when I saw that this damsel loves my blouse so much she wanted help grading it down to a size 38! The skirt is apparently from an earlier issue, too, but it clearly didn’t make much of an opinion as I can’t recall it.

First off, I really like this blouse and the trousers here – it’s hard to see, but the trousers have a high-waisted band with piping that really reminds me of the waistband on my tuxedo trousers (which are stored safely in a garment bag now while we build our new bedroom and wardrobe). Both are offered in multiple sizes, too.