Happy Birthday to Me

November 5, 2011 Comments

I’m an autumn baby and I love having a cusp-of-things kind of birthday. I always associate my birthday with big change. Fall, rather than mid-winter, always feels like the new year to me. (I always felt like New Year’s resolutions were so strange… maybe I live on the Jewish calendar!)

My birthday was a week ago and we decided to leave Texas for the much greener pastures of the borders of Yorkshire.

Somehow we didn’t get any actual pictures of me facing the camera but I have to say the scenery upstaged us anyway. Apparently this is where they shot parts of the final Harry Potter.

A few days later our friends took us for a lovely day at Chatsworth estate. (This has also been home of many film sets, including being Mr. Darcy’s “Pemberley” in the last Pride and Prejudice.) My lovely friend Jen is a textile artist in Sheffield–I had to include this because I love how her colors looked against the sky that day.

I’m 41. It sounds so big to write that down. Did you know that Winona Ryder turned 40 last month? To me, that’s the official sign that Gen X is going into middle age. (Did you see her in Black Swan? Strange and gory.)

My 40th year took me by surprise. I didn’t want to think it’d be a big deal, but it was. I was suddenly crowded with unexpected thoughts, as perhaps many women are, about the rest of my life–about health, children, career, places to live and how to manage it all. All good questions. I started this blog as one of my new resolutions (it started right before my 40th), as a way of challenging myself to write and focus on one particular passion.

I share the same birthday week with my mother and her mother (both seamstresses!). I’m happy to say that my grandma is 102 as of last week, and she’s a sharp and witty lady–she is now mostly blind and no longer sews or knits, but on her birthday last year told me she listens to audio books now, about 20 a week!

Here’s to new horizons and giving oneself permission to change routes!

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Lonsdale in Mocha

October 13, 2011 Comments

Gosh, I love this dress.

The minute I put it on, I knew it would become a regular rotation summer dress. Next summer.

Back when I first bought the Lonsdale pattern, I envisioned a Riviera-inspired garment and found a lovely linen-rayon blend in a perfect Mediterranean blue. It was even more gorgeous in person than it looked online, but alas, was much heavier than the described “shirt-weight”. I’m glad I changed direction.

I’ve been taken with all the head-to-toe neutral-palette dressing trends the last couple years. Skin-toned garments have a certain unexpected glamour. (Apparently, fashion is revisiting pantyhose as well, although as the more fetchingly named “nude-colored tights”. My memories of pantyhose in the 80s are not good, nail-polish-fixed runs and all.)

This was one of my favorite inspiration images from last winter.

I love how she put these all together and how the effect plays off her complexion. Yes, I get lost browsing Lookbook posts. And that cable-knit bustier totally rocks.

I thought the Lonsdale would be perfect interpreted this way, since it has such unique neckline and so much fabric going on. For me, too much print or bold color would turn it into a special occasion dress and I wanted a oh-I-just-threw-this-old-thing-on bit of surprise.

I was lucky to find some bargain cheap rayon challis in a milky coffee color. I will have to be very careful when washing, since the fabric seems to want to pill the minute I look at it. I like rayon/viscose challis as an alternative to drapey silks, but quality really does vary. But it’s so soft and comfy.

The back:

I didn’t want exposed seam allowances on the ravel-y rayon, so worked out how to sew the zipper within the lining. I have a RTW dress which is lined much like the Lonsdale and features a centered zipper so I knew it was do-able. The lining and inner waistband have to be cut a little bit differently, and the order of construction is changed a bit, but I found the process to be quite easy. (I also took some construction pictures along the way in case it might help someone else–a future post!)

I finished the skirt with French seams and tried out my blindstitch foot for the first time on the hem. After trying to hand-stitch for about ten inches, I realized I’d be at hemming all day (it’s a lot of skirt). I’ve been afraid of that machine foot for some reason, but it was much easier than I thought.

The pockets are such a cool little detail. I actually stuck my hands in them all day, making it feel like a really functional dress, too.

The fit was pretty perfect right out of the envelope–Sewaholic’s fit and sizing is more or less made for my shape so I really look forward to more of her patterns if the styles suit my aesthetic. I made a quick muslin out of rayon scrap to test out the bodice and only had to take in a little bit around the neckline to prevent gaping. I love its almost-maxi length, hitting above the ankles, which makes it perfect for flats or heels.

Overall, I think the Lonsdale pattern is a very lovely style and except for some acrobatic fidgeting in order to tie the bow in the back, it’s incredibly easy to wear. It’s also one of the better drafted patterns I’ve made this year, both in terms of technical draft and proportional balance.

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Warming up to Missoni

October 12, 2011 Comments

After awhile, certain patterns become so ubiquitous that I don’t even think about them being in my textiles anymore. Ikat, Celtic spirals, Hudson blanket stripes, what have you. For some reason it’s taken me forever to really warm up to Missoni stripes.

I loved this fall’s Missoni collection, like crazy.

This and an almost diametrically opposed collection by Jaeger were my two favorite fall collections.

Where one is reserved and so obviously autumn the other insanely extravagant and spring-like. I think I loved the Missoni because it lacked anxiety–which seems to be everywhere. (Here’s more of Missoni’s fall collection.)

But I also loved it because it wasn’t so obviously ziggy zaggy. While shopping for some new house things last week, I saw an imitative and economically-sound stripey Missoni blanket that had to come home with me, just to test it out on the couch and see if those ziggy zaggy’s wouldn’t drive me nuts. And of course there’s the Missoni for Target collection that had what seemed like a viral campaign around it for months on end.

While at Britex Fabrics a month ago, they piled their front door table with a fresh-from-the-recent-collection stack (and I mean huge stack) of Missoni knits. They are lovely to touch, soft mohairs and angoras. (They just listed some of these in their online store. Emma One Sock also has a few. Just in case you have an urge to drop $50 a yard. Hey, for some this might be a genuine investment.)

What’s your take on the Missoni stripe? Love or hate or indifferent? And if you got ahold of some of that insanely expensive yardage, what in the yeehaw would you do with it?

[Oh, and if you're a subscriber here, please excuse the hiccup of yesterday's post. Darn thing somehow got published and went into Google Reader purgatory, but it wasn't edited or really ready for publishing. But I promise, a re-post and Lonsdale pictures are coming!]

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Silk Tank, Version 4.1a Beta

October 10, 2011 Comments

At long last, a deep drenching rain came to Austin over the weekend. The ground was soggy, the morning had a sweet breeze, and I celebrated by pulling out just about anything with long sleeves. Despite that, I’m still finishing up my summer clothes including the latest in my silk tank top experiments. The latest is a pattern from August’s Burda:

Before this, I’d been working and re-working a Kwik Sew pattern. My last version underwent my first-ever FBA (thanks to advice from pattern whizzes), and came out fitting well, but still felt too boxy and shapeless.

Some of my problem was the design of the garment itself. It’s amazing how something so simple as a tank or shell can have so many subtle style and fit variations. Since I was teen I’ve always instinctually veered away from wide scoop necklines–I just don’t think they frame my angular face very well. I fiddled with the neckline a lot, trying to narrow the scoop which also requires narrowing the back into a slightly more racerback shape, and eventually decided to just try another pattern.

I think I was taken in by all the romantic styling (I’m really obsessed with blush tones right now) so I dropped the Kwik Sew pattern and traced this this Burda pattern…

I left out the side zipper and just sewed it as a pullover.

I love this fabric and darker coral hue (a half yard of stretch silk charmeuse that I ordered as a swatch a couple years ago–I’m trying to use up my yardage ends!). The recommended finish is a folded bias strip that is sewn to the right side then pressed inward and topstitched. I thought I’d try it, but think I prefer using facings. (You can see that the bias stretched too much and doesn’t lay flat against my neckline. You can also see, erm, that those darts are not the greatest.)

Just for the color and the fact that it’s sleeveless, I’ll probably wear this to death, despite the fact that its neckline is even wider than the Kwik Sew pattern. The straps almost fall off my shoulders. I’ll continue the hunt for next summer, or just perhaps draft my own darn tank.

Mondays are kind of like pajama day around here (rarely make-up, rarely even brushing the hair) but I decided to snap pictures anyway. This get-up is more or less representative of my default personal style (the kind which requires no thought when I realize I need to at least leave the house for groceries, or in this case, get in front of a camera)–jeans, a top, some kind of jacket or funky wrap, and brogues. I love brogues–flat ones, heeled ones. My husband calls them my collection of “teacher shoes”. Yep, I was a saddle shoe kid.

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