Fix-It Fridays and Front Porch Sundays

It appears that nothing resembling winter is ever going to arrive in Austin, which means I am going to have to shelf quite a few of my winter sewing ideas and get cracking on the summer ones. Aside from the fact that 73 in January bodes something hellish in June, I do love these kind of days here. The nights are even better. I love, love just sitting outside on our porch, listening to a neighbor practice his jazz sax through the window. There is a sweet quiet that falls over Austin running up to the madness that is March in Austin.

If I were to boil down all my autumn fashion inspirations to one fancy project by the spring, it’d be something in mixed materials, like a leather and fur combination. I’m a big Helmut Lang fan:

And there have been some bloggers who did some fun takes on leather looks, like Erika B’s suede-like top and Amanda’s leather-wool dress. I drool. Before leaving for the holidays, I traced out this coat from December’s Burda and started gathering supplies:

I doubt I’ll get much chance to wear by spring but I want the experience of sewing with new materials. The trim on Burda’s version is a hand-pleated grosgrain ribbon but D agreed with me that leather would be a much more interesting contrast. There are a few things I need to think through to make this work; at this point I have no idea how to cleanly sew a leather binding into a neckline. Thankfully this is a fairly uncomplicated pattern: no collars, simple raglan sleeves. I’ll write something later sharing my planned materials and process.

In other sewing news, I’ve decided to join up with Fix-it Fridays at pattern scissors cloth. I needed that one little blogosphere push to post about something weekly and especially get through this:

Yes, that’s my very unorganized pile of various UFOs/fixes/alterations (and there’s more in the back!) that beckon me longingly every time I walk into my sewing room. Hopefully, just setting aside special time to work through this and no other sewing projects will help get me past my abhorrence of hemming and learn a few things about alterations in the process.

My first stop on Fix-it Fridays (I know, it’s Sunday!) was to tackle my recent pajamas. They were originally entirely sewn on my regular machine while my serger was in the spa, but the curling seam allowances were driving me nuts. I’m very spoiled by the finish and speed of a serger! The jersey had also “grown” quite a bit after about twenty wearings, so the bottoms especially needed to be taken in and up.

The top didn’t go through many changes; I just cleaned up the chunky seams where the bindings are attached. On the bottoms, I had to remove part of the waistband to properly take them in. I’ll spare you more photos of me in my jammies, but I feel much better in them now!

Byzantine Lingerie Set

That is no country for old men…

This set turned out much more engraved and ancient-looking than I anticipated. I was thinking it’d be just a step up from my first two bras, a lacey black number with a bit of nude accent. But these fabrics were much less shy in person than in their online pics. The lace has a strong horizontal medallion design with metallic threads, and the lycra leans in a more bronze-taupe than nude direction. It’s hard to convey metallics in photos but it’s pretty dramatic.

As I was cutting it out, I could see I’d have to play intentionally with the strong; otherwise it’d go in the direction of Atlantic City bling. Not that I have anything against that… ironically. I was telling Derek, “this thing is going to be, kinda, um… Byzantine! Yeah.” Historic bling! And of course we immediately started discussing Yeats and what that might have to do with bras. Put two former lit grads together and you get lots of obscure writer jokes. (“Prufrock’s, like, my mantra!“)

Aesthetically, I’m in love. And at the moment, I feel I have found one of my “callings” as a dressmaker. I feel pretty stress-free about making lingerie and even possibly wasting fabric on experiments. Okay, bras don’t consume much anyway, but I also love working small and up close. (My favorite photos are macros of things like insect legs and iris veins.)

I still have some things to sort out fit-wise. The bra pattern is Pin-up Girls Classic bra in a 32B. In my last make of this I’d worked out a vertical seamed cup and for this new bra, I’d intended to make the entire cup of lace. Unfortunately the design was too directional and the repeat pattern too large to cut mirroring pieces. So I went back to the original horizontal seam and used lycra for the bottom cup. I still had a bit of lace left to squeeze out for the front band and bridge.

I’m learning that every fabric and lace requires little construction decisions along the way. I kinda like the puzzle. For example, even just a couple of mm difference in elastics might mean trimming or lengthening parts of the pattern or working around it. I may have jumped in too fast with such different fabrics than my last two bras but I’ve learned a bit more about bra fabrics. I had to rip out every seam at least once. (Ripping out serged stitches is a dream compared to the 3-step zig zag.)

These fabric and notions were all from e-lingeria. They have the loveliest stretch laces so I ordered a few at once to make the shipping from Germany worthwhile. Their kits for bras and panties include what they call “lycra” for both cups and bands, and it feels kinda like the lycra fabric in bike shorts. It’s kinda thick compared to other bra fabrics I’ve browsed. I’m assuming it’s nylon and stretches like its got about 10% lycra. As a band fabric, it’s quite comfy and good enough for support in a smaller-cupped bra.

Because it was so stretchy I figured I’d need to stabilize it for the cup. Thankfully I’d ordered some extra meterage of sheer nylon tricot, which I used as a second layer and lining. I got the idea to enclose the seam in the lining from a tutorial at Summerset’s blog. My results look clean but made for a very bulky seam, and after topstitching the seam became wavy and rigid.

And in the end, the lining didn’t seem to prevent the cup from growing in size. I probably should’ve just interfaced them instead. Or perhaps next time will have to cut the pattern smaller to accommodate stretch.

The matching panties are from Merckwaerdigh Mix 30. I like the general shaping of these–they fit like lower-cut briefs, and would be easy to change around to other styles.

I guess my lesson learned is that stretchy cup fabric does not make a good beginning bra experience. Just be warned, if you ever go for one of the ready-packaged e-lingeria kits. Kits are a great way to start because you get all the elastics and hooks and things that match. I wasn’t too happy with the elastic quality of these kits, either. (The elastic in the panties lost all their stretch after one wearing.)

On the notion-y goodness front, Wonder Tape is my new sewing BFF. (That and bra pads, which will make this bra wearable!)

I kept seeing folks on sewing boards extolling its goodness but had no idea what it was, either. It’s a roll of double-sided sticky tape in a teensy 1/8″ width that later washes out. It’s a great thing to have around if you make alterations a lot, too–like hemming.

Phew. That was a lot. That’s what I get for not blogging for two weeks. And with that I’ll leave you with my favorite bra of the week:

This is a simple but lovely long-line bra by Fortnight Lingerie. They’re a cut-and-make boutique company out of Toronto, and used to have an Etsy shop until recently. (You can some of their pretty things at Lille.) A friend of mine asked me what these kind of vintage-style bras were called, having noticed them popping up more frequently in fashion. A long-line is basically like a regular bra, except the band that goes around the cups is wider. It’s definitely a comfortable, supportive option for bigger cups without needing underwires, and I’m glad they’re getting a revival and making their way out of a niche market. Plus they’re just so dang cool.

Lovely, lovely Antwerp

Hello, hello. And Happy New Year!

Yes, I know that’s a bit late, but only in internet time–which pretty much came to a halt for two weeks. We had a very quiet and unplugged Christmas in Antwerp, Belgium. My husband and I lived there briefly before we settled in Austin, but continue to visit at least once a year. This year we used the holidays as an excuse to gather with a few friends who traveled from Prague and Berlin. I love European cities at Christmastime… the families gathered together in the squares, huddled against the cold with cups of mulled wine, the relaxed holiday pace.

We peaked into the Christmas Day mass at St. Mary’s, where a glorious tenor was belting out American black gospels.

{This one is by my husband. I have a sorry lack of pictures of the entire two weeks but I’m not the iPhoneographer around here. He somehow climbed on the rooftop of our apartment for this one.}

Antwerp is, in my humble opinion, one of the friendliest and most relaxed cities in all of Europe. My favorite activity here is just to sit on the crowded Meir and people-watch for hours on end–the Flemish walk to the sound of their own drum with offbeat style at every age. (I’ve also never heard so much whistling in any place. People whistle songs to themselves–constantly. Surely a sign of happiness?)

It also has a reputation as a fashion and shopping mecca, and I’d be remiss if I never wrote about it on this blog. There’s every kind of fashion from high street to luxury packed into the small streets. You may have heard about the Antwerp Six, a collective of designers (Dries van Noten, Ann Demuelemeester, etc.) from the Art Academy here who basically put Antwerp design in the international spotlight in the 80s. These designers have their stores here and you feel their influence in much of the design. I’d name that influence something like post-street-pop-Japonisme. (There’s a huge representation of Japanese design here–including the pioneering designers of the 80s. I should write a post about that connection sometime.) The MOMU fashion museum is a rare treat with a curated exhibition that changes a couple of times a year and a permanent historical collection.

Since lace was on my brain when we left Austin, I thought I might find some here–after all, this is Belgium, right? Surprisingly it’s hard to find fabric stores in Antwerp and I didn’t have much patience to explore in the gale-force winds and rains that haunted our last week.

But it was exactly the holiday we needed. Friends, lounging indoors and talking, lots of Irish coffee, more talking. And Chocolate. Every. Day.

New Year’s on the Scheldt. (One of two pictures I took! Yep, it was that relaxed.)

I’m looking forward to getting back to sewing…. and catching up on the crazy zillions of blog posts in my reader!

The Hidden Things

Oh Austin, I love you.

{Sign on Silk Road Fabrics.}

Something about this struck me as very typical Austin. That people here who don’t generally suffer from workaholism. That there are still places one has to find by accident, or in this case rely on word of mouth for opening hours.

Austin is one of those rare cities that has the kind of places one must stumble upon. Groovy restaurants that haven’t been Yelp-ed and mapped and Twittered to death. It’s got a fair share of the Secret South. (There’s an art collective literally hiding in a forest.) The sign might be spray-painted, the pedestrian traffic nil, but those homemade Mexican grandmama tortillas are the secret everyone loves to keep secret, or just recommend the old-fashioned way. It’s one of the reasons Derek and I gravitated here. We always call it a haven for creative people; it’s urban but incredibly easy to be an artist and live an artistic lifestyle without a competitive strain to prove oneself.

Silk Road used to be just a walk away from our neighborhood, in a lovely little cottage that was torn down a couple months ago. (Sigh, no more fabric sources for me that don’t require a driving haul through a labyrinth of Austin traffic.) Long before I got back into sewing I used to browse the exquisite silks and walk out with a couple glass buttons. They have gorgeous linens too–my first-ever fabric purchase in Austin eventually became the wide-leg trousers. Last year they moved deep into the East Side, still a source of hidden creativity despite upscale development. I had to turn around twice at the train tracks before I realized the store was inside the Flatbed coop.

Now here’s a place I’ve heard about but never visited. The closed doors of Silk Road sent me wandering instead around this heavenly mothership of all things printmaking.

All in all, a very Austin experience… where you end up when you were looking for something else.

Anyhow, this would’ve been the one local place I’d find some lovely lace trims for Sherry’s Ruby Slip. I’ll have to wait. I’m finding a bit of pleasure in that, too–the pleasure of the waiting, of finding the one thing that can’t be found by anyone else.

This is about lingerie, I guess, in a roundabout way. In lieu of a slip, I made a new bra over the weekend. I wanted to sew another one fairly soon after my first try, to refine fit and design changes while the experience was still fresh in my mind.

It’s still plain and super cutesy pink, but I wanted to use up the fabric and notions I got from Bramakers Supply to test my changes. I tried changing the pattern to a more vertical seam and went to a full-band bra. I also went down a cup size, which fit just perfectly despite my worries on the first bra. (My first was a modified 32C, which as it turns out was a bit of wishful thinking!)

My sewing will stop for two weeks as we travel abroad, but my first order of sewing business in the New Year will be a luxe version of the bra from this lace-like gilded lycra. It came all the way from Germany via e-lingeria.de and took almost two months, but I am so pleased. Gorgeous stuff.

Have a wonderful holiday, and I hope that true and meaningful secrets are revealed to you!

A Tale of Two T-shirts

While working on my kimono-sleeved top for the PJs, I got a bit obsessed with t-shirt shaping. I should warn you before diving in any further–there are enough stripes in this post to make your eyes buzz.

It’s been a long while since I made a plain ole t-shirt. I mean, what could possibly be easier than a t-shirt? Right. They’re not rocket science but just start sewing and watch how even the most basic clothing turns into a scintillating dissection of fit and abstract shapes.

In the spirit of pattern face-offs, I decided to give a go at mocking up two different tee patterns. Long, long ago, there was the Lydia pattern. I’d just discovered BurdaStyle and the pattern was free and I was dying for a new stripey t-shirt. I love me a stripey knit. It wasn’t long before I was off and messing with the pdf in Illustrator turning the pattern into everything but a t-shirt.

Problem is, I never properly fitted it the first time around, sewing a 38 when 36 is usually a better Burda size for me. I had two yards of the original stripey knit left over, enough to squeeze in two tees. It was cheap and pills like crazy and will never become that striped tube dress. So side by side, here is Kwik Sew 3338, a popular tee pattern, with Lydia on the right:

The two sizes (36 in Burda, Small in Kwik Sew) were close enough in measurements, but there are little differences that stack up.

First up, the lengths. The Kwik Sew is designed to be shorter, hitting more at the hipline, while Lydia falls below the hip. The only changes I made to both patterns was to shorten the neck to waist length by an inch. Even after that, the Burda waistline is still a bit lower than mine (and an inch lower than Kwik Sew’s).

In both patterns, reducing the front and back lengths above the waist was a good idea, but I should add length into the waist-to-hip area. (Short torso, but high waist.) Shape-wise, the Lydia has a much more curved waistline and flared out hip. Which suits my hippy pear self. The Kwik Sew wants to hike up to my waist. This wouldn’t look so goonish if it was a tight-fitting t-shirt:

Now the sleeves. Burda tends toward high sleeve caps are high and narrow armscyes. Even this t-shirt has sleeve cap ease (about 2 inches of it!) The KS has no cap ease. You can see the difference in how the shoulder looks:

I guess it all depends on what kind of look one is going for. Burda’s tall sleeve cap looks good when the arms are down, a nice sleek shoulder and top of the arm. But just try to raise the arm and see what happens. Immediately the top of the sleeve puckers and pushes up, while the under arm feels a bit restricting because it falls so far below the armpit. This is more noticeable in their woven patterns.

(And if you really want to get into sleeve pattern geekery, check out this post at Pattern School. He writes a bit about the the visual and fit effects of sleeve angle–and indirectly, cap height–in stretch patterns.)

Aside from the height, the shape of the front and back sleeve cap made a difference in fit. The KS sleeve is almost symmetrical front and back, while the Burda slopes slightly to the front:

I think that’s why the KS tee has some jiggy going on around the front armholes. This is after I’ve pulled it down straight (after wearing it for 10 minutes or so these wrinkles pull from the neck more):

It’s obvious from looking at the stripes in the side view that I could be a candidate for forward shoulder adjustments, which could fix the pulling as well. Still, I’d love to know whose arm/shoulder is shaped equally in front and back like the KS pattern. I’m guessing a lot of people think they have forward shoulders when perhaps a pattern is just too symmetrical to start with?

Finally, the back. The KS definitely fits better in the upper back.

{edit: lydia is on the right}

Are those folds around the Lydia armholes from excess upper back width? Length? Armhole length? All of the above? I don’t know–but I do wish it was a little sleeker back there. Its shoulder width is slightly longer than the KS shoulder as well. I’m wondering if I should unpick my binding and see if that changes how the shirt relaxes.

The rest of the differences are just in style. The Lydia is meant to just skim the body, not fit tightly. The Kwik Sew is slightly slimmer. I like the neckline of the Lydia better–crew necks make me feel kind of boyish–although necklines are interchangeable. The Kwik Sew has unique little feature in the form of a hidden bust dart that is eased into the back. This probably adds a bit of length and better fit for those with bustage. I personally need that length and width in the hips, which are four inches wider than my bust.

Overall, the Lydia wins my favor, if I could fix the back. Or maybe morph the two to get the best of both worlds.

Well then, I think I’ve thoroughly scratched my obsession of the month! (For the moment.) Any t-shirt fitting gurus out there care to comment, or have a preference?