I Made it Pink!

Tags

competition, jacket, Project Sewn, stash-busting

So here we are in the second week of the Project Sewn contest. The theme is Make it Pink — and boy, did I ever! People are going to see me coming from a mile away when I go out in this puppy! Shield your eyes, here I come!

I had this pretty brocade in my stash from way back. I probably found it on clearance at JoAnn at some point and couldn’t resist it. I’ve never used it because I just couldn’t figure out what to do with it. I guess I was waiting for the right special occasion to come along — but here’s the thing: I’m color-phobic! Every time I looked at it I chickened out. “If I wear this everyone will LOOK at me!” (Horrors!) So there it sat, just being beautiful. But when this week’s challenge came along I just decided to go for it. And guess what? I LOVE IT! Go ahead, look at me! Here I am! Isn’t the fabric of this jacket BEAUTIFUL? (Oh, blogging is just bringing out all kinds of things I never expected. I think I may be becoming insufferable.)

I’m not sure how I’ll style it when I actually wear it out in the world. For today you get it with jeans and a black turtleneck — which I kinda like, actually — it’s got a high/low thing going on. But I could see it really dressing up an LBD too. I really, really need a gold-ish top to go with this and the snakeskin jacket. I have just a little bit of fabric (TEASER: there’s a story behind the gold fabric but you’ll have to come back later to find out what it is!) but I ran out of time to make it for this photo shoot. I’m getting this in to Project Sewn just under the wire.

The pattern is another one that I developed a long time ago. I am pretty sure I started with (now loooooong out of print) Butterick 5937:

(Oh my GAWD that’s an old pattern!) and tweaked it and added the peplum and sleeve flares. I used it for another jacket several years ago and I think I’ve also changed it even more for some other projects. I just love my tried-and-true patterns — I re-use them all the time. Do you do that?

So — the fabric. Like I said, it’s really pretty. Which is a good thing because it has a terrible personality. It scorches, it refuses to crease properly, it goes wonky if it gets half a chance. I used this sort of brocade for a suit once and had to throw the damn thing away because it looked so awful. But this time I decided to try a little experiment: I underlined every piece with fusible interfacing. Just the cheap Pellon stuff, nothing fancy. But it made all the difference in the world. I bent the brocade to my will! When I ordered it to crease, it creased. When I cut it, it stayed stable. When I stitched it, it behaved. Okay, it’s true I still had to be super careful about not scorching it, but with a little bit of patience and a good pressing cloth the brocade and I managed to get along on the ironing board. I took some pics of the process of fusing the underlining, and I’ll try to publish a tutorial some time soon.

Oh, and look — here’s one of my favorite parts — the lining is ORANGE!!

This color combination makes me so happy! Spring is coming!

And just before I took this next one I removed my left hand. (Don’t worry — it screws right back on).

(You know, I really should learn to take some time with my hair before I go shooting photos, shouldn’t I?)

PINKETY-PINKETY-PINK!!

Inspired by Dior

Tags

competition, historic inspiration, Project Sewn, TJ

Ah, Christian Dior’s New Look. Was there ever anything more elegant, more aspirational, more utterly feminine? Extravagant use of yards and yards of gorgeous fabric. High, womanly, rounded bosoms. Impossibly tiny waists. And icily perfect models with red, red lips and flawless eyebrows haughtily contemplating the middle distance.

The iconic “Bar suit” from Dior’s first collection in 1947.

I’ve been completely in love with this aesthetic all my life. I used to try to emulate it by wearing full skirts and fitted tops all the time, but alas, I am neither tall nor willowy, and it looked vastly different on me than it did on Dior’s models. My style had to change, and it has.

Such contrived glamour has all but disappeared from the world in 2014. Pretty much the only place it is ever seen today is on the red carpet.
Eveningwear seems to be the last refuge for modern glamour-pusses. Happily for me, I have occasion to don eveningwear at least once a year, for Dearly Beloved’s annual holiday party — and I make a point of going all out! Here is what I wore in 2013:

There. Do I look haughty and unapproachable? See? I have red, red lips!

And why am I showing you my holiday dress in February? Why because of Project Sewn‘s Fashion Icon contest, of course! Such a fun idea — they choose six designers to compete online in a sewing contest. Each designer has to submit one outfit a week for four weeks, following assigned themes. And viewers who aren’t in the contest get to submit their own interpretations of the theme, and everyone gets to vote for a favorite. (Go look! Vote for me! Vote for me!) This week’s theme is Fashion Icon. At first I thought submissions had to be created the week of the contest, but that doesn’t seem to be the case, so I’m submitting my holiday dress. I think it channels Christian Dior rather well, don’t you? The portrait neckline and long fitted sleeves strongly remind me of the picture at the top of this post.

Naturally, in demonstrating how very Dior this gown is, I couldn’t resist striking some of the high fashion poses from the 1950s.

Oh, I’m just certain that if Monsieur Dior had seen me I would surely have become his favorite model!

The butterfly clip and the messy strands — so ’50s!

To make this dress I used Vogue 9124, now out of print.

It’s a wonderful pattern — it fit beautifully with very few alterations (which never happens!). It’s boned, and I added a waist stay to keep everything firmly in place.

(I can’t imagine why this photo has a brownish cast to it — but I can’t seem to fix it.)

There are elastic stays inside the top of the sleeves.

And I narrowed the sleeves and put invisible zips at the wrists.

I suppose one reason no one wears things like this any more is that they aren’t very practical. I can’t show you any pictures from the back because I couldn’t get it zipped by myself! But Dearly Beloved was here to help the night of the party and I must say I did feel lovely that night. (And I took a lot more care with my hair and makeup that evening too!) It’s a shame TJ lacks opposable thumbs, or he might have been able to help me for these pictures. As it is, however, he just thought they took too long. “Swanning around the house by yourself in a velvet evening gown is all well and good, Mommy, but could we please go outside and play now?”