Brocade Wiggle Dress

Ring a ding ding! This is the Wiggle Dress from Gertie's New Book for Better Sewing. I made it to wear to a rehearsal dinner for a dear friend's wedding in New Orleans, and I have never felt so va-va voom in my life. And look at this fabric! It's a silk brocade from Britex in San Fransisco.

I've sewn two dresses from Gertie's first book, and both required substantial fit adjustments. I was shocked when I did a muslin for this one, and discovered that the changes were minimal. I sewed a size 10, and only had to make four changes: 

1. Shorten the waist by 3/4". 
2. Remove 1/2" to the underarm at the sleeve. 
3. Add 1/2" to the upperarm at the sleeve. 
4. Took in the hips, 1" to start and tapering down to nothing.

Below was my one and only muslin, before any fit changes were pinned in place. You can see I'm already pleased as punch.

A photo posted by rosiewednesday (@rosiewednesday) on Oct 10, 2014 at 7:53pm PDT

The dress has a kimono sleeve, so the underarms have gussets to allow for mobility. I hadn't sewn a gusset before this, and I found I really liked both the construction and the way it moves while wearing it. I did make one change to the instructions - I added a small square of interfacing at the point of the gusset for extra durability. 

The pattern originally calls for facings, but I decided I wanted to do a full lining instead. It looks so much nicer, and is much more comfortable. I used a rayon bemberg, and it's so soft! 

For the slit, I followed the pattern in the book, but I think I much prefer the method I used on my suit pencil skirt. It's more of a fan than separate pieces, and it's much less bulky when you have a lining. You can see the two vent variations in this tutorial from Tuppence Ha'Penny. 

I did have one calamity with this dress at the 11th hour, and it had to do with hemming. I somehow managed to stitch the underarm sleeve seam of the lining to the upperarm seam of the fashion fabric. The result was a twisted mess. I realized it when I put on the finished dress, and couldn't get my arm in! Thankfully it was easily fixed, although tedious to rip and redo a lot of hand stitching. Minus that one hiccup, this dress was an absolute dream to sew and wear! 

I predict there will be more of this silhouette in my future. I found my wiggle! 

Blog Hopping

My pal Dixie of Dixie DIY nominated me for the blog hop, so let's get leaping!

How does my blog differ from others in its genre? 
It's written by me! That sounds quite silly, but I really think it's true. Before I started Rosie Wednesday, I had a good friend that had been pushing me to start a blog for a long time, and I kept telling her I didn't think I had anything new to add. She argued back that since no one else was me, of course my perspective on sewing would be unique. As Oscar Wilde said, "Be yourself; everyone else is already taken."

That being said, I don't blog for me, so I did set out with a couple of things I wanted to do. For example, I knew I wanted to be honest about my mistakes in sewing and not be shy about sharing them with you. We all make mistakes, and figuring out what to do to fix them or not make them again is how we learn. I thought it would be a shame to make it seem like all my projects turn out perfect, but I do love them anyway!

And I wanted to tell stories, because it's how I talk, and I think that's more engaging to read. Almost every project has a story behind it, and I like rooting that out of all that happened in making it and assembling it back together again for you in a post.

How does my creative process work? 

I love studying creativity, and it's been fun to read everyone's answers on this one during the blog hop. John Cleese has an excellent talk on creativity, where he explains "open mode" and "closed mode." When we're in open mode, we're just that, open. We're more playful, willing to explore the wackiest of ideas, more relaxed. When we're in closed mode, we're focused, executing. Lots of factors can go into why you're in one or the other, or how you could move from one to the other, but my creative process will depend on what mode I'm in at the time.

In an open mode, I'll seek out inspiration from grandmother's outfits, old Hollywood, architecture, anywhere. In closed mode, I find a pattern I like and I sew it up. While I'm sewing in open mode, I'll explore new techniques or details I could add. In closed mode, I'll stick to the instructions and techniques I know. One isn't better than the other, but it's a different kind of work and finished project.

What are you working on now? 
A coat! I am using the Ninot Jacket pattern, and turning it into a swing coat. Pauline Alice did this variation, and I thought it was lovely. I've got the muslin fitted and pattern adjustments made, and I think it's going to look smashing. I recently got Adele Margolis' The Complete Book of Tailoring, so now I'm trying to study up on how to put a fleece interlining to make it warmer.

Source

My fabric is a cream wool blend, and I have a black and white polka dot lining. I'm visiting the Biltmore Estate in North Carolina for my birthday next month with family, and I'm hoping to get it done in time for the trip! 

What are y'all working on? 

Coco Chanel-Style Suit

I sewed a suit. I sewed a suit!! I still can’t believe it. If you would have asked 12-year-old me when I first started sewing if I’d ever make a suit, well, I probably would have told you I could have sewn anything. But by 16, I was gifting good male friends pajama pants without a fly because I was too timid to tackle it. So I’m glad to see that my childhood enthusiasm and fearlessness is returning! 

My class and one other concluded our 8-week course with a style walk at Austin School of Fashion Design to show off our garments. As a special treat to the students, ASFD provided us with professional hair, makeup, and photography (credits below). So you get to see my fancy suit with fancy photos! 

I'm so happy with the fit. I think this is the first time I haven't had a lingering feeling of a fit tweak I wish I could make. I mentioned I never imagined myself in Coco Chanel suit, but now that I've made one that fits me, I'm quite enamored with it. It's much easier to be when you make all the fabric and detail choices yourself!

I teased you a little last week with background on the pattern, fabric, and some in-progress photos. So let's talk about how some of these details ended up in the finished garment. I made the "lips" of the welt pocket from the back of my fabric for a nice contrast. I also added a facing in the polka dot to the inside of the pocket, so you wouldn't see the lining peeping out.

The lining is polyester in a snazzy red. I want this jacket to last me a long time, so polyester seemed like a good, durable choice. I hate that polyester gets so hot, but in a jacket, that's not a concern.

At the bottom of the jacket, I hand stitched a chain of pearls. This is a great feature of the original jacket that has stood the test of time.  The story goes that Coco Chanel was having problems with the hem of her signature jacket flipping out, so she took a chain necklace and stitched it to the bottom for extra weight. I like how the pearls tie into the polka dots on the fabric. 

The skirt is made from my sloper, with 2 darts a piece in the front and back and a small pleat at the back. I made it with the same fabric and lining, and chose to highlight the stripe on the back of the fabric at the waistband. I added a grosgrain ribbon on the inside of the waistband, then handstitched it down to finish. 

What a wonderful experience this class was. If you're in the Austin area, I can't recommend Austin School of Fashion Design highly enough. Now I'm eager to start using my new tailoring skills on other projects. I'm also feeling very ambitious, so I think I'll sew a coat this winter, too! 

Credits
Hair and Makeup: Mariana Meredith Salon

Photos: Photography by Beatriz

Sewing a Coco Chanel-Style Suit

One of my goals for the year was to sew a jacket, and when I discovered that Austin School of Fashion Design had an 8-week course called the "Coco Chanel Suit," I knew I couldn't pass up the opportunity. It's been a dream, and I can hardly believe that I'm just about done making my own suit!

The pattern for the class is Vogue 8804, a Claire Shaeffer pattern. It has princess seams, side panels to provide extra shaping, and a three-piece sleeve. In the first class we talked a bit about the history of the Coco Chanel suit, which was originally designed to be made from a knit as a lightweight jacket. So it's a bit odd that I'm using it to learn tailoring, but it's fascinating to learn about all that goes into making these jackets nowadays.

Source

It turned out that I was the only student to sign up, and ASFD had the tremendous good nature to keep the course just for me. So I've been getting private lessons essentially from Karen, an amazing seamstress and professor at The University of Texas. We started out with a muslin in a straight size 14. There was a CRAZY amount of ease up at the top of that sleeve cap, and it was a little bit big at the waist and shoulders. My right side is pinned in, and the left is how it fit straight out of the envelope.

Muslin #2 went a little better. My left arm is the the second take on the sleeve, and the right is the third. Much better! We took out some ease at the top of the sleeve cap, and then cut into the armscye slightly. I had a bit of tightness there.  We also placed the sleeve about 1/4" off my shoulder, so it would be easier to wear sweaters and such underneath it.

It's about at this point that I started to get really excited. To be honest, I had never imagined myself wearing a Chanel-style suit. They are beautiful garments, but not something I really pictured in my wardrobe. By the time we finished with the second muslin, though, I realized it could totally work for me. It really is a lovely, classic piece, and we made adjustments in the muslin for it to be a little less boxy and more shapely so it would work well with my figure and personal taste. It also helped that I found great fabric, a black and cream polka dot wool from Mood. 

With the muslin finally fitting well, I got to cutting and sewing! I picked a fabric where I would need to match up the print, because I wanted to have a teacher walk me through what to do. I've matched up tons of prints, but I still struggled with getting that sleeve area right. The steps to do it are the same as the ones I mentioned in my plaid shirtwaist post from last winter, but it helped so much to have a teacher showing for me how to do it. I think it's finally stuck in my brain!  

When it came time for the pockets, I decided that I didn't really care for the patch pocket look. You can see my paper placeholder below, with the hem pinned up to get an idea. I'm so short-waisted, that I just didn't think it was going to look right on me. So I decided to do welt pockets instead, a superb tailoring technique. The back of the fabric has a very nice stripe that I wanted to use some place, and it turned out to be a great spot to show off the contrast. 

Below is a photo of the guts, midway through construction of the welt pockets. I went with a wider welt pocket, with 3/4" "lips" to really showcase the stripe from the back of the fabric. You can also see that the entire jacket is underlined in muslin, which I really liked doing. It gives the jacket a little bit of extra body, and a touch of warmth (at least enough for Texas). I still interfaced the facings, too. 

For the lining, I'm using fire engine red so it really pops. I'll also be making a matching pencil skirt to go with it. It's all so very exciting! My mom came over for dinner one evening, and I was showing her the suit in progress, and she said, "You're never going to buy another jacket or coat again." Yes, she's totally right! Why would I now?!