Two Birds, One Stone

This skirt is my response to two challenges: 

• 2021 Threads Digital Ambassadors' Runway Sewn Your Way Challenge

• Fall 2021 Literary Sewing Circle Project, hosted by Melanie Kindrachuk at Following the Thread.ca

Slow sewist that I am, I did not finish it in time to enter it in the Threads Challenge. However,  I will use the Threads Challenge questions to organize this post.

Inspiration - Two Birds

Literary Sewing Circle

For the Fall 2021 Literary Sewing Circle, participants read The Sun Down Motel by Simone St. James and made something - anything - inspired by the book. The book follows two story lines separated by 35 years and involves mysterious disappearances, ghostly hauntings, and presumed murders. One of the protagonists, Viv, is running away from home and on her way to New York City to pursue an acting career in the fall of 1982 when she lands in the small town of Fell, NY, and takes a night job at The Sun Down Motel, a creepily haunted roadside motel that has long since missed its opportunity for financial success. As I read, the theme of disappearance struck me and I determined to make a skirt to echo that theme.

Threads Runway Sewn Your Way Runway Challenge

The challenge was to interpret a runway look, make it your own, and discuss the challenges and rewards of the project. I recalled seeing a Chanel suit with deconstructed tweed that seemed to disappear, and I found it at Vogue.com in its review of the 2003 Spring Couture season. 

This is the suit, Look 10, Chanel Spring 2003 Couture. The embroiderers at Lesage deconstructed the tweed and attached it to English net. It looks like the fabric disappears before your eyes. Image from Vogue Runway. . Accessed 11/11/2021 from https://www.vogue.com/fashion-shows/spring-2003-couture/chanel#review

This is Look 6 from the same show. Image from Vogue Runway.  Accessed 11/11/2021 from https://www.vogue.com/fashion-shows/spring-2003-couture/chanel#review

I made these looks my own by simplifying the garment to make it something I could wear every day.  I also used a fabric with a Chanel-like texture and a combination of surface manipulation and machine techniques.

Patterns and Fabric

My skirt pattern is based on the Fashion Sewing Group pencil skirt 1964 (now out of print), fitted to my tilted waist and high hip using Sarah Veblen's fitting techniques of horizontal balance lines and draping to fit. Sarah draped a yoke on me to accommodate my particular shape, resulting in a balanced, level hem every time. 

All fabrics are from my stash. The face fabric is a woolen check with a very course weave, purchased from Nancy Erickson of the Fashion Sewing Group. I liked the way the marled yarns seem to disappear: Now you see me, now you don't! It is backed with black power net and the trim is a sequined mesh from Joann Fabrics, left over from a previous project. It is lined with a Bemberg rayon.

Trim

First, I fringed the bottom 4 inches of a length of the wool. Next, I laid out the skirt patterns with the hem edge at the bottom of the fringe. Then, I cut the yoke pieces on the bias. 

I basted the wool to the power net and serge-finished the edges. The yoke pieces were interfaced with a weft-insertion fusible.

To reinforce the disappearing effect, I cut warp yarns and pulled them out, using a crochet hook to isolate the yarns I wanted to remove.

Then I wove the sequined net in place of the removed warp yarns, weaving the strips under the white yarns. I learned that the net strips needed to be just narrower than width of the opening; if  wider, they would fold over and hide the sequins. Chopsticks helped to stabilize the mesh.

I used a crochet hook to spread out the mesh where needed.

There are a few rows of with weft removed. These wrap around to the back of the skirt.

Machine stitching lines stabilize the weave where weft has been removed.

The power mesh has been cut away from the fringe. Weft has been removed  three checks above the line where the fringe begins. 

From inside.

Challenges and Rewards

Early in the process, I realized that I did not have the nerve, the time, or the skill to completely deconstruct the fabric as in the pink Chanel suit. I compromised by working slowly, testing ideas on a scrap, and stabilizing the fabric with machine stitching. Working with the sequined mesh was fiddly, but ultimately very satisfying to learn how to work with it.  The power mesh is more opaque than I expected, and I wonder how a lighter, softer mesh would have worked.

It was especially fun to think about how to style this outfit.  I want a skirt I can wear for everyday life, not a super-fancy designer garment. Several looks in Lagerfelds' 2017 Resort collection for Chanel include travel tee shirts. Viv was on her way to New York when she stopped at The Sun Down Motel; the I HEART NY tee shirt fit the bill. Several of the characters in the novel wear stretched-out hoodies, so I looked for one at my local thrift stores.

This was a big and ultimately very satisfying project. I took breaks from it to shop for vintage tee shirts and watch old movies (E.T. played at the second-run theatre in Fell during the fall of 1982). I'm really grateful for the community of innovative sewists who share so freely on the Web!

September 2021 Mini Wardrobe

Having just retired, my current sewing plans include some exploration into retirement style. The fabrics above are for a mini-wardrobe, which I plan to enter in Pattern Review's current mini-wardrobe contest. Contest entries include two bottoms and three tops, and all tops must coordinate with both bottoms. From left to right: Slate gray jersey, rayon blue heather jersey, "Kandinsky revisited" drapey pebble crepe woven polyester, polyester mini stripe, white cotton poly interlock knit and white cotton bottom-weight twill. The whites are more pure white than the picture indicates.

At this time, my sewing plan includes:

3 tops from Pamela's Patterns Perfect T-Shirt, with self-drafted modifications of each

1 skirt (self drafted) 

1 jeans-style pants from Fit for Art's "Eureka! Pants that Fit."

My Sewing Year

Something Old, Something New!  Lace design on dress combines appliques of new lace and lace taken from my own wedding dress, made in 1982 using materials purchased in NYC garment district.  Lace on the veil is from the hem of my wedding dress.      Portrait photography by Rebecca Keeling on location in Colonial Williamsburg.

Something Blue! Dan Post Blue Bird Boots.  Vintage pearl jewelry with sapphire clasps, gift from grandmother. Flowers by Williamsburg Floral, Williamsburg, Va.  Portrait photography by Rebecca Keeling on location in Colonial Williamsburg.

Ruffles consist of 10 yards of organza, cut on the bias, gathered and attached in rosettes and multiple rows to a base layer of point d'esprit .  Additional ruffles made with tulle. Ruffle layer attached to completed lace over-skirt. Portrait photography by Rebecca Keeling on location in Colonial Williamsburg.               

A year ago I began my journey to create my daughter's gown for her wedding on November 16, 2013.  Here it is!

Steps and timeline:

December
Bride-to-be tries on dresses and identifies design elements she likes
Select patterns to  create desired design
Take lace off old wedding dress and wash
Dye test samples with tea, ivory dye, and  coffee

January
Make muslin  of corset and dress for fit and design lines
Make samples of ruffles

February
First fitting. Make second muslins.

March
Purchase fabric, lace
Make samples of ruffles
Make second muslins

April
Make boned corset muslin and petticoat
Second fitting
Adjust fit of corset, make corset
Attach petticoat to corset
Adjust fit on muslin, cut muslin apart to use as pattern pieces
Examine inspiration dress to determine materials and technique for ruffles.  Select materials and technique (note:  should have examined inspiration dress first!)
Purchase organza for ruffles

May
Cut and hand-baste satin bodice and under-dress and taffeta lining
Third fitting:  Need to do over bodice. Mark hemline
Stitch skirt seams

June
(little to no activity  because of travel and family matters)


July
Make veil 
Make bodice
Stitch seams on skirt and lining,  baste skirt to bodice
Cut net over-skirt
Make narrow seams  on net overlayPlace lace appliques on skirt, baste
Fourth fitting:  Approve placement of lace. Bodice is still not right.  Purchase bra, start over on bodice (Note: should have bought all undergarments first!)
Cut tulle and organza for ruffles. Gather

August
Attach net overlay to bodice, place lace appliques, fell-stitch in place
Attach bodice to corset 
Order buttons
Hem satin skirt with horsehair braid  and attach lining to skirt at hem (4 rows of hand-stitching)
Make ruffles

September- Oct 5
Fell-stitch appliques on front skirt (DD appliqued lace on back)
Make ruffles
Sew side seams on net overskirt
Attach ruffle layer to lace overskirt
Place lace appliques to hide skirt seams, fell-stitch
Sew 45 buttons down center back of dress
Attach bodice to skirt by hand, using back stitch
Line bodice
Attach skirt lining to bodice-skirt seam
Make and attach button loops
Fifth fitting (two days before portrait appointment):  adjust fit by slicing net skirt and overlapping lace appliques.  Add additional appliques to side front seams.  Add one additional organza rosette for balance.
Sew 25-26 buttons, hook and eye
Make and attach tie

November
Attach 3 sets of bustling ribbons to satin skirt
Attach 9 sets of bustling hooks and thread loops to lace overskirt
Finish stitching lining into place

DONE!  Let the celebration begin!

Twintime

Note styling differences: slacks vs. dress, bright vs. dark, sleeve length, open vs. buttoned, accessories. . .

Note what is the same: length of jacket! hair cut! glasses!

Jacket with Red Dress

I made a red wool gabardine dress to go with the jacket. (S3673, a vintage pattern, TNT).

Finished First, Posted Last!

I finished the jacket several weeks ago, but wanted to give Maggie a chance to get hers done before I posted. Here is the completed shell, with precious little hand-stitching. I have an inflamed tendon sheath in my thumb (tenosynovitis), so hand stitching is much less enjoyable for me than it is for Maggie. Truth be told, she has always done much better than me at precision work of any kind . . .I'm such a slacker !

Details

I enjoy hand-sewing, so I made time for the details. The cuffs have working buttonholes, so I lined the vent (top). This was not an easy task, since I didn't do it until after I had set in the sleeve.

The handworked buttonholes were incredibly time consuming but satisfying. It will take me another project or two to get the hang of it, but I'm slowly but surely learning how to keep them from looking like little caterpillars--i.e., too wide and too dense.

I bought the chain for this project several years ago. Because the jacket is underlined and interfaced, I wasn't sure it needed the chain's weight to hang well. But I like the sparkle, and it really does make a difference in the jacket's wearability.