Tag: Simplicity

Simplicity 1755

Simplicity 1755

This is Simplicity 1755, my new favourite dress. Fifties-inspired style? Check. Pockets? Check. Raglan sleeves? Check. Pretty collar? Check. Perfect!

Well, sort of.

Although the dress itself has come out lovely, the pattern leaves a fair bit to be desired. To begin with, the instructions for the button loops and sleeves are wrong. Somebody’s had a little centimetres versus inches confusion, because the instructions say to cut the button loops 2cm long, when they actually need to measure 5cm – about 2 inches. And the instructions for the placement of the button loop are wrong as well. In the end I decided to abandon the loops completely, and used a couple of sparkly buttons on each sleeve to hold the cuffs in place.

Simplicity 1755

I also added a couple of sparkly buttons on the back of the collar, because the pattern didn’t seem quite right there either. The instructions call for hooks and eyes to close the two halves of the collar together at the back, but the pattern pieces simply aren’t the right shape for that to happen. So, the sparkly buttons are holding the back of the collar down to the dress, to stop the corners from flying away.

Simplicity 1755

I’m pretty pleased with the invisible zip, considering it’s only the second one I’ve ever put in. It gaps a little bit at the waist, but the belt covers it, and all the seams match which is good. The waist isn’t terribly defined for a 1950s-inspired dress, but that’s because I had to grade it from a size 16 at the top to a size 20 at the waist to make it fit. I only hope that doesn’t make it look too frumpy, but the most important thing for me is that it’s comfortable.

The fabric is an organic cotton and bamboo mix, in heather and heather splash spot. I’ve used this bamboo fabric before, and it’s fantastically soft and luxurious. Bit crinkly though, so I foresee a fair bit of ironing in my future.

I’ll definitely be making this dress again, probably with a couple of modifications. The pockets are a little on the small side, so I’ll replace those with my own pocket pattern. I also have a shirt pattern with the most fantastically enormous raglan sleeves, and I can definitely imagine a long sleeved version of this dress. In fact, I may have just ordered three metres of this lovely stripy bamboo/cotton, to go with the leftover plain purple… perfect!

The Lorax meets Simplicity 1755

This is Simplicity 1755, which I had every intention of beginning to sew this morning. I want to wear it to a wedding next month, and my extra hours at work are continuing, so I need to get a move on in any spare time that I do have. The illustration to the right shows roughly how it will look in the lovely organic cotton and bamboo fabrics that I bought a little while ago.

This morning I received a comment on my post about making a Dr Seuss dress, which sidetracked me a little bit into thinking how good Simplicity 1755 would look in a combination of novelty print fabrics. A little look on eQuilter revealed that lots of Dr Seuss prints are still available…

…as are several Beatles prints – although Sea of Holes is sadly gone.

But I’m trying ever so hard to only buy organic or recycled or ethically produced fabric for the clothes that I make for myself, so I was just about to sigh wistfully and close my browser when I noticed something exciting.

The Lorax prints are all on organic cotton!

Wouldn’t this dress look absolutely amazing in a Lorax print?!

And by “absolutely amazing” you know, of course, that I mean “utterly ridiculous”. In a good way.

A further search reveals that eQuilter actually has hundreds of organic cotton fabrics, which is fantastic! Of course there’s then the issue of the airmiles involved in shipping them over from America, but at least there’s only one journey, from their country of origin to me, and the same applies to the (mostly) Indian fabrics I buy.

Uh-oh.

If Simplicity 1755 goes together easily, and it’s comfortable to wear, I can feel a fabric shopping spree coming on…

Spotty cotton & bamboo

Organic cotton & bamboo

Here’s my latest order from my lovely organic cotton people. Three metres each of spotty and plain organic cotton and bamboo blend. Isn’t it lovely? It’s in the washing machine at the moment, and I’m expecting it to be super soft when it comes out. The almost-matching thread’s organic too, and I’m planning to buy a lot more of this in future.

When the pattern eventually turns up in the UK, I’m going to turn it into Simplicity 1755. I might have let out a little squeal when I saw this dress. It’s everything I usually look for in a vintage pattern – cute collar, raglan sleeves, full skirt, pockets… but in a modern size, which means I don’t have to wear terrifying underwear or spend days re-drafting the pattern only to discover that it still doesn’t fit. Marvellous!

The sample swatches are Texweave, which is a lovely heavyweight woven fabric, perfect for coats or upholstery, and Super Jersey, which is another cotton/bamboo blend. It really does feel super too, so soft, and with just enough elastane to make sure it doesn’t go baggy. I can feel some lovely soft pyjamas coming on, or perhaps a vest or two.

I have a lovely big tin full of their fabric samples now – every time they bring out something new I send off for the samples straight away. This means that any time I want to go fabric shopping, I can simply pull down the tin and look at all the little squares. Much easier than just picking something at random from the website and hoping for the best!

Waltz on the Wye 2012 – Friday

Friday

We arrived in Chepstow at lunchtime on Friday. After we’d settled into the hotel and had something to eat, we got changed and went off to explore. I checked out Chepstow Castle with my sonic screwdriver. As you do.

Friday

I only saw five of these coats over the weekend, including my own! This was a bit of a surprise, because I’d expected to see lots of people wearing outfits made from Simplicity’s steampunk patterns. Too obvious, perhaps? The coat is Simplicity 2172, and the skirt is Simplicity 2207. I learned the hard way that it’s not a good idea to walk around on wet grass, in the rain, in a floor length velvet skirt. By the end of the night it had soaked up what felt like all the water in Chepstow, and my shoes and socks were soaked through as well. The skirt still wasn’t properly dry when I brought it home three days later, but thankfully it seems to have survived a trip through the washing machine and tumble dryer relatively unscathed!

Friday

I also learned the hard way that when you accidentally drop your beautiful new sonic screwdriver onto the pavement, bits can break off. Oops…

My absolute highlight of Friday evening (and indeed of the entire weekend) was Morgan & West’s magic show. A pair of Time Travelling Magicians who’ve fooled Penn & Teller, they were extremely clever and absolutely hilarious!  At the beginning of they show they explained that there would be a lot of audience participation (argh!), but promised that they wouldn’t embarrass or humiliate anyone. They were true to their word, and the show was funny, exciting, and extremely clever without ever resorting to being shocking, sweary or gory. (The only thing I didn’t like was the needle-and-thread-swallowing, but that’s just my own personal squeamishness.) I loved the part with the apple and the shoe, and the trick which looked as though we were being shown how it was done but we actually weren’t. I’m not sure how descriptive I can be about a magic show without venturing into the territory of terrible spoilers, so you’ll just have to believe me when I tell you that they were absolutely brilliant!

After the magic show we headed out into the rain to grab something to eat from the Strumpets with Crumpets (goat’s cheese and blackcurrant jam, yum!) and to watch the end of Boxcar Aldous Huxley‘s set in the bandstand. Any band with a french horn player usually gets my vote, but add a harmonium, saw, banjo and euphonium, and you’ve got a very interesting sound indeed!

We went back to the Drill Hall for the headlining band, Rogora Khart. A sort of bonkers Welsh Russian circus punk folk band, with clown make-up and a bellydancer. It took me a little while to get the hang of them, I must admit, but by the end of the evening I was really enjoying the music. Although Paul says I’m not allowed to learn to play the Bombarde. Meany.

Steampunk Silk

Steampunk Silk

This is a costume that I made for a friend, way back last October for a Hallowe’en event. She already had a corset and a mask, so they dictated the copper, gold and brown accent colours.

The ivory silk had a previous incarnation as her wedding dress. The slightly distressed texture is a result of putting it through the washing machine, but it left the fabric amazingly soft and a joy to work with. There was enough to make a jacket and a bustled skirt, with some left over for accessories.

Steampunk Silk

The jacket is a modification of two Simplicity steampunk patterns – 2172 and 2207. The back and sleeves were taken from 2207, with the front from 2172. I added lacing into the princess seams at the back, and beading to the cuffs. The buttons were from the original dress, as were the Swarovski crystal beads.

Steampunk Silk

The bustle and swags are in sections, all interchangeable so they can be worn in lots of different ways. They simply tie at the waist with ribbons. The skirt itself is bustled at the back, using ribbons sewn through channels in the centre back seam. This can be let down into a train. There’s a little bit of ruching at the front too, conveniently placed to disguise a stain that wouldn’t come out! (Shhh, don’t tell…)

I also made a petticoat to go underneath, to give  the skirt a little bit of extra fullness. I don’t know why I didn’t take a photograph of that, but you can just see the ruffle peeking out, here. There are better photos of the outfit being worn to stunning effect, but I need to get permission before I post them here. Thankfully it was well received, and looked absolutely fabulous!

As always, I wish I’d had a bit more time to make this. The bustle and swags were a bit rushed, and I would have liked to add much more beading to the cuffs. But I absolutely loved making it. It was a real treat to work with such sumptuous silk duchess satin, and to swap creative ideas with a friend. In fact, it’s inspired me to modify my own wedding dress for an event I’m attending in May.  You’ll have to wait and see how it turns out!

Vaguely Victorian

I’ve been asked to work an extra day this week to help out with a school visit, for which I may have heard myself ask my boss “would you like me to come in dressed as a Victorian?”. The session goes with the Victorian part of our building, Palmer House, which was designed by Waterhouse (of Natural History Museum and Reading Town Hall fame) and built in 1880-82.

Paul, bless him, has managed to rein me in from “I NEED TO MAKE A COMPLETE PERIOD-CORRECT VICTORIAN OUTFIT BY TUESDAY” to “please can we have a look in your wardrobe first”.

Victorian-ish outfit

However, I may have used “dressing up as a Victorian for work” as an excuse to buy a corset. I chose a black brocade one which was on the “corset of the day” offer for £25. It ended up costing me almost £40 by the time I’d paid vat and extra for super-fast shipping, but I still call that a bargain. It’s not expertly made, but it’s no worse than any Vollers corset I’ve owned in the past, and it gives a “Victorian enough” shape under all those layers, so I’m happy with that.

The website was a bit weird – I kept finding other people’s things added to my shopping cart and at one point it kept telling me that I was logged in as somebody else, which made me very nervous about giving them my credit card details. But I placed my order at five to three on Friday, 3pm being the cut off for next day delivery, expecting it to arrive on Monday. The postman knocked on the door at 9:30 on Saturday morning, with my corset! So that was extremely impressive. (He also brought my lingerie-sewing book which I thought had got lost in the trans-atlantic post, so hooray for that too!)

Victorian-ish outfit

I posted on Facebook about making a Victorian outfit in a hurry, and Chris from Progress Theatre offered to lend me a bustle pad from their wardrobe. I replaced the worn-out elastic with cotton tape, and I think it’ll make quite an acceptable late-Victorian silhouette.

Victorian-ish outfit

Next I added my lilac petticoat, for volume, and a plain white vest to cover up the black dress and corset. I went for black foundation layers because I’d originally intended to wear a black blouse, but the two I thought might be suitable turned out to have inappropriate sleeves.

Victorian-ish outfit

Here’s a side view with the bustle. Is my bum going to look big in this? 😉

Victorian-ish outfit

Next layer: the ivory lawn pintucked blouse that I usually wear for being a rural Edwardian when I’m out with the clog dancers.

Victorian-ish outfit

I spent all day making this skirt, but unfortunately velvet doesn’t photograph at all well in poor light so I can’t show it to you properly. It’s Simplicity 2207, the same as my red and black stripy one.

Victorian-ish outfit

And for the finishing touches: a black wool man’s dress waistcoat, a length of black ribbon, and a marcasite brooch in the shape of an owl. I wear this waistcoat to work quite often, usually with the owl on the lapel.

Victorian-ish outfit

I must admit that I’m not completely convinced by the bustle, even though it’s much smaller with the weight of the velvet skirt on the top. I was looking at photographs of Victorian teachers and the more I see the less I’m convinced that a bustle, even a small one, was worn underneath everyday workwear.

I’ll try the whole outfit on together, and hopefully I’ll be able to get some better photos while I’m at work tomorrow. I can’t do much about my extremely un-Victorian hair and glasses, sadly, but I think this is not too bad, considering I had almost all of it lurking in my wardrobe already!

Simplicity 2172

Simplicity 2172

I know you’ve seen this one before, but I just wanted to show you Simplicity 2172 in its completed state.

After the Wild Boy’s Ball I removed the feather collar, and added the sleeves. I decided to leave off the shoulder flanges and the ruffly bits because they’re not to my taste and I wanted to keep the style very simple.

I’m hoping it will be a nice versatile evening coat. For all the glamorous events I get invited to in my imagination, obviously. It’s probably a bit over the top for wearing to choir practice.

Steampunk Coat

Almost finished...

Here’s the final part of the outfit – a somewhat modified version of Simplicity 2172. Actually, it’s not as heavily altered as you might think – I just left off a few pieces that were surplus to requirements. Like the sleeves.

The buttons are the original ones from my friend’s military jacket. There are four on the front (complete with more hand-sewn buttonholes), two on each pocket, and an extra one at the centre back.

Almost finished...

As you can see, I decided to bustle the back of the coat, so I made thread loops in the seams which simply pop over the buttons on the pockets and at the back. The coat was exactly the same length as the skirt, and the red lacing looked a bit out of place without being able to see the red of the skirt to tie it in, so to speak.

The feather collar is actually a cape that I bought from Next, last winter. Sewing it into place around the neckline of the coat forces the feathers upwards into a more wing-like shape, rather than the cape simply sitting flat around the neck.

In case you’re wondering where on earth I’m going in this outfit, it’s for the Wild Boy’s Ball at Kensington Palace. All I need to do now is add some more feathers to my mask, and carefully choose the rest of my accessories. I’ll make sure to show you photos of the entire outfit when it’s finished!

Steampunk Petticoat

Petticoat

You might have noticed that this is made to roughly the same pattern as the black linen dress. This time the ruffle’s a bit shorter, but that was mostly because I’d almost run out of stripy fabric. The body of the dress is a little longer to compensate. The hem is trimmed with one layer of wide flat lace, and another of red gathered lace to provide a little bit of extra fullness. The butterfly sleeves are simply overlocked at the edges, and the beaded trim matches the skirt.

Petticoat and skirt

Here’s how they look together – rather smart, I think! The plain red doesn’t exactly match the stripes, but I think they’re close enough that it doesn’t matter too much. The petticoat doesn’t make the slightest bit of difference to the fullness of the skirt because it’s much too narrow, so you probably won’t even see the two layers of lace. The attention to detail makes me feel better about the outfit though, so it’s worth the effort.

Simplicity 2207 – Striped Steampunk Skirt

Simplicity 2207

The title says is all really – this is Simplicity 2207, my striped steampunk skirt!

Somewhat eye-bending, but I knew the stripes on the skirt would end up going in all directions, so I deliberately placed them vertically on the front and horizontally on the ruffle.

Both edges of the ruffle are finished on the overlocker, with the “raw” edges left visible. Over the gathered join is four metres of beaded trim, with four metres of braid stitched over the top. I think I spent more on the trimmings than I did on the fabric!

(This was sadly evident as I was sewing – the black stripes are printed rather than woven, and I ended up with very grubby hands. Yuk.)

Simplicity 2207

I attempted to put pockets in the side seams, but that turned out to be a lesson in reading the entirety of the instructions before you start. The waistband has a somewhat unusual construction, so the two sides of my pockets didn’t match. Not wishing to rip out all the overlocking and start again, I simply chopped off the pocket pieces and pretended I didn’t want pockets after all.

The back of the skirt is twice as full as the front, and has an elasticated waist. I have a horrible suspicion that, despite measuring, I’ve cut the elastic a little bit too short. Thanks to the waistband construction I can’t easily get in and change it, so for now I’ve adjusted my dress form to be a little bit bigger than me, in the hope that it’ll stretch out a bit before I wear it. Fingers crossed.