Thursday, December 15, 2011

Crocheted details



The detail picture above is a crocheted insert from a blouse of my Mom's. The blouse was made by my grandmother of beige cotton. It had 3/4 puffed sleeves with openings along the upper seam and I remember it as if it was yesterday... My mom threw the blouse away recently, but she saved the crocheted insert for me. The color has turned a bit reddish somehow, so I'll have to dye it if I want to use it.
My grandma used to make almost all of the clothes we had as children and she used to sew for my mom a lot too. My mom wasn't as driven as my grandma and myself, but she managed to finish a pattern drafting course.

It is made of 'Pearl' or 'Perle' cotton yarn, which is actually a yarn used for embroidery:
    





There are many ways to use crocheted details on dresses. You can use it instead of a waistband or use it to accentuate a yoke on a blouse. My grandma has a few '60s and '70s crocheting and knitting pattern books, there are even patterns for making crocheted gloves. How about a crocheted insert for the Macaron dress? If you have the time you can even make a crocheted wedding gown like in the picture below or like this one!




  
From left to right clockwise: Topshop dress, Modcloth blouse, Claire Pettibone wedding gown

Wednesday, December 14, 2011

Waiting...

No projects! My sewing machine have been in service for 2 weeks now. It seems to be a rather busy period there... I miss my little (rather heavy) 507!!

Friday, December 2, 2011

Style Macaron dress for winter

Even if it has short sleeves, the Macaron dress is versatile for the autumn/winter months. I've made mine with a corduroy fabric which has more body. Here is my 'winterized' version:

Boots (Airstep), shrug (Esprit - this is basically a tube with an opening in the middle) and a shawl:


 

I'm taking a few days off from blogging - London is waiting!

Wednesday, November 30, 2011

The finished Macaron dress





Pattern: 'Macaron dress' from Colette patterns
Fabric: soft corduroy
I made just a few adjustments, after making several muslins version 1 here, version 2 here and version 3 here I decided to cut size 4 except for the top part of the bodice, the grey parts which are size 2. Plus, I lengthened the skirt by 7 cm (approx. 3 inches)
The fit turned out great. The shoulder darts make the fit of the top much better. (Why don't use modern patterns shoulder darts anymore?...) Love the shape of the skirt! It is slightly smaller at the hem and the stiffness of the corduroy is ideal to accentuate that. The instruction booklet is clear (as always with Colette patterns). The pockets are inserted in the outer folds in a really interesting way. When you are sewing the instructions are easy to follow though. I used a bright pink bias band to finish the seams and the hem on the inside and a leftover from my grey Jasmine blouse for the facings and the pockets.











The colors are in reality like this:

Saturday, November 26, 2011

Macaron dress in progress



Started making the Macaron dress! I always cut single layers because I find it a more precise way of cutting the pieces. (At the same time this is the part of sewing I hate most...) The two fabrics looks great together and the instruction booklet is clear. I decided to use bias band to finish the sleeves rather than to cut two layers. It worked great! Catchstitched it on the wrong side. The construction of the pocket is interesting, I have to read everything twice to make sure it turns out okay...

Seam finishing of sleeves:











My sewing assistant - not disturbed by the sound of the sewing machine and the radio:



Tuesday, November 22, 2011

Macaron muslin - part 3.



Third and final muslin of my Macaron dress! To make things easier I amputated the bodice of my size 4 muslin and attached it to the yoke and upper part of my size 2 muslin. And voila, it resulted in the (almost) perfect fit! Look, the yoke looks flat and the bodice isn't tight anymore:

 



The bulk on the upper back is gone now and the bust dart sits at the right place:
(new size 2/4 (left) size 2 (right))

        

There is some room under the busts, but it is not annoying and this dress doesn't have a skin-tight fit.
If you look carefully you can observe that the line where the the midriff band and bodice meet goes slightly upwards towards the front in the right picture and has a slightly curved downwards line in the left picture.
I need to cut a small stroke of fabric at the bottom of the bodice in the front to straighten the curved line and make it look horizontal. This will help to flat out the small bulk under the busts below:

Sunday, November 20, 2011

Macaron muslin part 2.

Second attempt... I've cut size 4 now. The only adjustment was lengthening the bodice by 2 cm. The results are not perfect, but I have an idea how to make the third one... This time I left some extra fabric at the sleeve but I like the original length better. The pictures:

  




Obviously, the length adjustment of the bodice is unnecessary, so I took out the extra length (picture on the right) and it already looks better. Especially the fit around the midriff:



    

Still, it looked like the front yoke was too wide. Let's take a look at the size 2 again:
(size 2 pics left and size 4 right)
- the yoke looks much better on the left (size 2) I also like the look of a shorter front yoke (the proportions are just better)
- around the bust the size 4 has more ease
- but under the bust (where the darts are) I'm not sure. I think this is going to be size 4 as well as the waistband. I really need the width at that point! Size 3 is just skin-tight...



    

Of course, I'm going to make a third muslin where I'm going to cut size 2 at the top yoke and widen it down to size 4. Hopefully will all my efforts result in a perfect fit!

Friday, November 18, 2011

Macaron muslin part 1.



As for my Ceylon dress I used a size 2 pattern, and for the Jasmineblouse even the size 0 pattern I thought it would be the same with the Macaron. Strangely, this size 2 muslin is just too tight and too short everywhere!

- I can get my head through the opening which seems rather small, so that's good.
- I really like the back darts, they make the fit so much better! You usually see them on vintage patterns, but not on modern patterns. I wonder why...
- The fit around the shoulders and the upper part of the bodice is just right, from the side it seems to have enough just ease for me
- Even less ease on the lower parts...
 I looove the fit of the upper yoke around the above the bust area! As you can see here the bust dart is way too high, needs to be lowered by +/- 2 cm

Alterations:
- I'm going to make a size 4 muslin to see whether the bust dart gets lower and the fit of the midriff part gets better.
- I think the upper yoke of the bodice is just right, it shouldn't be too roomy. (Size 4 might be just a tad better though I'm not sure)
- Probably, at the end I just need to use size 4 (or even 6) for the lower part and size 2 for the upper part of the bodice
- As usually I didn't make a skirt muslin, I just assume the fit of that will be OK. As I look at Macaron dresses on the internet I think I definitely need to lengthen the skirt to have that 'just above the knee' length I prefer.

I really like the fit of this Macaron dress! She lenghtened the midriff band by 1 inch and the skirt by 3.5 inches.

At last I decided to get a remote shutter for my camera, Making pictures of myself is so much easier now! I can't wait to finish this dress and make great pics which are not blurry.



      

Wednesday, November 9, 2011

Next up...



Next up is a fall version of the Colette Macaron dress! I've bought a grey and a plum-pink colored ribcord fabric. First up to the muslin, of course!

Friday, November 4, 2011

Bow-tie blouse ideas!

     

When thinking of bows the Dutch designers Viktor & Rolf come first to my mind. They are known of the use of bows in their designs in many different ways. They even made a rather interesting wedding dress for one of the Dutch princesses, completely covered with 248 small and large bows! When making plans for fall sewing I had patterns for two bow-tie blouses since I don't have any. The first one is going to be a Jasmine blouse. My inspiration is a navy blue blouse with light colored collar/bow from Modcloth:




I think the color combination will look lovely with the pattern! See my muslin here.
I was browsing the internet looking for different styles of bow-tie blouses and there are many! 
I've picked a few here:


Sailor style, without the sailor collar!
Clean and simple lines from Vila satin (on the left) and Topshop ' Ellie bow blouse' where the collar at the back is actually just a yoke:


      




Sometimes the bow is a scarf!
Heidi Merrick dress with a huge, voluminous scarf (right) and extra long ties at Gucci's (left):


Gucci blouse



When a bow is not enough!
The bow is usually the only feature on a garment, but here it is combined with an embroidered neckline (Robert Rodriguez embroidered chiffon blouse on the left) and a collar made of little bows, and another bows at the cuffs (Mulberry silk bow blouse on the right)

     


Delicate fabric!
Thin and sheer fabric drapes beautiful. An oversized and sheer in combination with a halter neck on the left (Jules B 'Milly blouse') The fabric has to have some stiffness to it though to make the bow hang like that. A long, soft hanging bow in contrasting color on the right (Robert Rodriguez)

       

Artistic!
This is one of the cases when you wonder, how did they do it...
A rather huge, artistic bow from Prabal Gurung for J.Crew. The bow is incorporated in fabric folds of this Moschino blouse, as worn by Michele Obama (below)

        



Asymmetrical!
Vivienne Westwood on the left. Asymmetrical Peter Pan style collar with a bow (Banana Rrepublic)

   



Finishing touch!
A scarf collar with long, fringed edges (on the left: 'Marly blouse' from Joseph) To accentuate the shape of the bow the edges are finished with contrasting fabric on this Marc Jacobs 'Polka dot' halter blouse:

     



Small ties!
The bow doesn't need to be big, it can be a rather subtile detail too (Diane von Furstenberg 'Pwerleena blouse') Even big graphic prints in bold colors can be combined with a subtle, thin bow with metal clips  (Diane von Furstenberg 'Whitman blouse')

        


Busy print! 
Even a rather busy animal print can be combined with a bow. On the left Dolce & Gabbana in leopard print, on the right 'Tiger tie neck blouse' from Cavalli:

  




Short ties!
Blouse from Chloe and 'Dove tail blouse' from Modcloth:

                      



Front tie! 
Sometimes the bow is not at the neckline but a little lower. Hampden tie-front blouse on the left, a romantic blouse from Ruche on the right: