Vintage Vogue for Frocktails

So the Sydney Spoolettes finally got around to holding a frocktails event last Saturday. Melbourne, Brisbane and Canberra sewists have been much better organised than us Sydney sewists and have each held a few big events before, but it had only been talked about in Sydney. But thanks to the excellent organisational skills of Caz from Useful Box, Sydney has joined the party.

Frocktails is where you wear something you've made, book out a nice venue and get together with a bunch of other sewists to have some drinks, chat, and feel each others' fabric. It's a lot of fun, as you get to see all the different styles people wear, see patterns you've heard about made up into a finished product and talk about fabrics and sewing techniques without boring people out of their minds.

It's also a good excuse to make a pattern that isn't an every day style. Or, in my case, finally finish one off. This dress is by far the longest make from when I bought the pattern and fabric to when I tied off the last thread. In fact, I'd be surprised if there were many people who had a finished make that had taken as long as this one did!

This pattern is the out-of-print Vintage Vogue V2787, originally from 1948. It's an absolutely stunning pattern, with curved and gathered bodice seams, gathered shoulders and a curved and half gathered front skirt piece. I bought the pattern and fabric from Tessuti back in 2005 when they still had a store on York St in Sydney. The fabric is a silk twill called falling leaves or falling ivy (it's been over a decade, I'm not certain of its name) and is wonderfully soft with a great hand. I got the pattern home, pinned it and cut it out, and then realised I'd had a bit of a delusion of talent and definitely didn't have the sewing experience to make something as complex as this. So I put it back in its Tessuti bag and put it away for a decade.

I pulled it back out two years ago during the sewphotohop daily photo challenge on Instagram. One of the prompts was 'secret corner of shame', and an unfinished ten year old pattern was an obvious choice. I got a few comments telling me to have a go at sewing it up, so I took it out of its bag. I hand gathered along the seams, hand basting before stitching it together. The fabric has about 4% elastane giving it a slight stretch, but it sews together completely smoothly.

The dress has a side zip and button back. The button I used is from a box of vintage buttons I inherited from my grandma. I did all the seams by machine, but decided that the zipper, hem and sleeve caps needed to be sewn by hand. However I didn't finish the dress off then, I pinned the zipper in and moved on to other projects that were quicker and that I had a reason to sew.

Fast forward another year and a half to the start of this year, and I was starting to think about what I should wear to frocktails. I looked through what other fabrics and patterns I had but nothing grabbed me, so I thought I might pull this one out again and finally finish it off. But there were a few other things I wanted to do first (see my last few posts) so I didn't actually sit down to start finishing it off until about a week before the event. And not only did I have a long week at work, I was close to out of the bone coloured thread I was using. Nothing like a deadline.

The hand sewing was straightforward, just tedious. I decided to hand sew the last elements so that the hem, side and sleeve caps would look smooth with no stitch lines. That meant it took time and close attention to make the stitches as invisible as possible. I finally tied off the ends of the hem threat at 6:05pm on Saturday, barely half an hour before leaving to head into the city for frocktails. I gave the dress a quick press - missing a crease on the front of the skirt - got ready, and headed off to see all the Sydney Spoolettes.

Sadly I didn't get many photos at frocktails as I only had my phone and the venue was relatively dim, but it was a fantastic night. There were 70 women all in amazing outfits they'd made, great drinks and lots of food. It's taken a long time, but it was great to finally get so much of Sydney's sewing community together into the one room. Here's hoping we'll have more frocktails events in the future!

In Season Silk Comp: Boulanger Tea Dress

Another Tessuti competition, another entry. This time their In Season Silk Competition. Where the last competition was to make a version of their Kate Top, this time it was a make anything at all using one of two beautiful silk crepe de chines. Lucky for me (maybe not so much for my wallet) I work less than 10 minutes walk from Tessuti's Surry Hills store, so the day after the competition was announced on Instagram I walked over in my lunch hour to get my fabric. There were two fabric choices, I decided on 'Autumn Cluster', In Season Two. I chose it because I thought the floral print had more versatility on what to do.

It took me a long time to chose exactly what I wanted to make. Being a crepe de chine the fabric is soft and floaty, so a soft and floaty dress was what I needed. The colours are very autumnal, and also very 1930s, so I thought the 30s would be a good inspiration. I love Art Deco styles, so this fabric seemed perfect for something with that inspiration. But even with a chosen garment and time period it still took forever to choose exactly what to make. Pinterest was both a help and hindrance in deciding what to make. I have a Pinterest board of Art Deco gowns and they were all very inspiring, but a little too much - every time I had a look I wanted to choose a different dress as inspiration. But details like fairly open backs with some detail at the top and relatively simple skirts kept standing out.

This dress is my version of my favourite pattern, McCall 9043. It dates from 1936 and is designed by Louise Boulanger, a less well-known name but one of the most creative designers of the Art Deco period. As with a lot of spectacular 1930s dresses and patterns the back and shoulders are the focus. The open back was easy enough, just requiring the back pieces to be cut so they finish just past the shoulder blades. With the addition of the connecting strap at the base of the neck and the curved centre pieces at the lower back I was able to replicate the pattern.

The shoulders were harder to work out. I only had the picture of the final dress to go on, no idea of what the different pattern pieces were. They're curved so obviously part of a circle, and they fold back in around the front to join at the top of the shoulders. Finally I realised - it's a quarter circle! I tested with a scrap of fabric just to see if it would work and it did, so now I had a full plan for my dress.

Once I knew that I could design the shape of the dress it wasn't too difficult to make it. I drew up each pattern piece needed and set about making it. Where the original was a floor length gown I decided to shorten it to tea length so that I'd be more likely to have times to wear it. The contrasting fabric is just a soft polyester from Lincraft, but it was the right weight and colour.

The bodice is completely self-lined, but the skirt is unlined because I didn't want anything to affect the flow of the skirt. As the fabric is a light silk it does fray, so I covered the skirt seams in bias binding. The zipper is inserted by hand, and the lower edge of the bodice lining was also done by hand stitching in to the bottom of the contrast band. The sleeves have a rolled hem so they can flow as freely as possible, and the skirt has a 1cm hem.

The construction of the dress was relatively smooth. I did have to change what needle I used, though. Initially I used a size 9 needle as it's designed for delicate fabrics, and it worked alright for the silk bodice. But when I was stitching the silk to the contrast fabric the stitches were looking uneven and the thread broke three times. I dug out my machine's manual and it suggested using a blue tipped needle for fine fabrics if a small size didn't work. Once I swapped the needle over it all went much more smoothly.

 Because it took me so long to decide exactly what to make I didn't end up leaving myself a lot of time to actually sew this dress. The competition was announced back at the start of March, I cut into the fabric last weekend. Still, deadlines are a great motivator. I was also a little worried I woudn't be able to get good photos, because I don't have time in the mornings before work and by the time I get home it's dark and morning rain was predicted for today, but luckily the rain had cleared away early.

There are a few little things that aren't quite perfect, like the invisible zipper that is slightly visible, and where the contrast band meets the back bodice corners it doesn't sit quite flat, but they are only very minor. And I even have some fabric left over, so I can maybe make a small top or a matching 1930s capelet.

 Anyway, I have to say I'm extremely happy with the finished product. I hope you all like it as much as I do!

Silk Tessuti Kate Top aka Grown-Up Clothing Item #1

So I got offered a new job a couple of weeks back! I'd been looking for work for a while, in the meantime doing short-term projects, but nothing with any permanence or certainty. But I had an interview in mid-November and managed to be successful, so yay me! Anyway, all this has to do with sewing because this is a job in an office, where I'd previously been at a university/working from home. Although it's not a corporate or particularly formal office, I do still need to dress a bit differently to how I have been.

Tessuti released their Kate Top pattern in early November, at the same time as I made it through to the first round of the recruitment process for the job. It was a beautiful pattern, plus they had an Instagram competition for making it, so I was already tempted. When I got offered an interview I started really seriously thinking about buying the pattern. If I was successful, I'd need some more grown-up clothes, and a classic shell top is very versatile and grown-up.

The interview went well, and the offices are about a five minute walk from Tessuti's Surry Hills store, so I rewarded myself with a trip over there. Looking around for something that would be good for this pattern I spied this gorgeous silk. It's called Beautiful Spill and is wonderfully soft and vibrant and I just couldn't pass it up. I knew I had to get it and make the Kate Top with it.

Because the print is very bright I decided to make view A, with the lower neckline so that the colour wouldn't be completely overwhelming. I made size XXS, which fits very well. The top is designed to be a bit loose, and the drapey silk works really well with that bit of extra room from the bust to the waist. Being a slight build I probably could have left the bust darts off because they don't add any shaping for me, so in the future I might not include them. 

I was a little daunted about sewing with the silk. I have sewn with silk before, but only a few times, and with taffeta and dupion, not with something delicate and light like this. However it wasn't that bad in the end. I used a new size 8 machine needle, a lot more pins than normal, and went slowly, and I didn't have any issues. I also did French seams as the safest way to treat a delicate fabric, so that the raw edges would be hidden away. The only real problem I had with construction was sewing the bust darts on the wrong side of the fabric and having to redo them. There is a front and back to the fabric, but the colours are still very bright and you have to pay attention to notice the difference, which I obviously didn't do at first when doing the darts!

There were a few new techniques in making this. The side splits were something I'd never done before, and looking at the pattern pieces I had no idea how they can together. But the instructions given were really clear and easy to follow. I did stitch them down slightly differently to the instructions, doing each of the four side split sections individually, rather than doing them all in one with the hem. Although the silk did turn out to be easy to sew with, I thought it would be best to concentrate and get each edge done properly by themselves rather than run the risk of the whole thing going wrong. It might have been fine without my precautions, but better to be safe than sorry.

The other new-to-me techniques were using tearaway vilene and making self bias binding. The vilene on the neckline and armholes works to stabilise it, which is especially helpful on a light fabric like this silk. With it, I was able to hang the top as I went along, making it easier to pin things together and see if it was all coming together right. The bias binding was trickier. This silk doesn't really seem to crease - great for wearing the top, but not so good when trying to press a fold on the self bias. In the end I had to accept I wasn't going to get it pressed much at all, and just had to use a lot of pins and pay extra attention to make sure it was attached correctly. It isn't perfect, but for a first attempt and with a fabric that isn't really designed to be used as bias, I think it turned out pretty well.

So this is the first item for my (slightly) more grown-up work appropriate wardrobe. And I love it. I'm really happy I decided to use the silk and didn't avoid it because it's a scary fabric. The colours and the drape are both perfect for the pattern. And I think wearing this to an office I can pass as a real and responsible adult!

Silk and Linen Harvest Top

It's been a few weeks since my last post. I've been sewing, just hadn't gotten around to blogging. But three creations were photographed today so I have no excuse to be lazy in updating here for the rest of the month.

First up is the Harvest Top, a free pattern from Peppermint Magazine, made by Pattern Runway in collaboration with The Fabric Store. I tend to mostly make dresses and skirts, and have only made a couple of blouses, but I liked the boxy, softly oversized style of this one.

I decided that, seeing as the pattern has separate yoke and waistband pieces, that I'd make them with a contrasting fabric. The main silk fabric is a lightweight check taffeta from Tessuti that I've seen there for quite a while but never had any ideas for. I wanted the contrast fabric to be less fancy, so that the top could be dressed up or down. I wandered around the shop trying to find a good matching contrast for the yoke and waistband, but was indecisive about what I wanted. In the end I grabbed a grey cotton that seemed the right shade. Unfortunately I didn't realise until I got home that is was very much a stretch fabric and completely useless for this top. Oops. So I headed to Spotlight where I found this basic grey linen and decided it'd have to do. Luckily, the fabrics work together (at least I think so!), so my stuff up wasn't too much of a problem.

So making the pattern. I haven't used a Pattern Runway pattern before, but it was pretty straightforward, and easy to follow instructions. I am a bit smaller than the smallest size, so given that this top is already slightly oversized I decided to take in the sides an inch or so, which was easy enough. It's still probably a little looser on me that it's designed to be, but not so much that it looks like I'm wearing the wrong size. It just looks like a loose fit boxy blouse, which is exactly what it is.

The blouse buttons up the back, which I really like. I inherited a large box full of buttons from my grandma, and very luckily found these etched grey buttons that match the linen and complement the silk. There were even exactly the five buttons I needed for the top!

The looser, squarer shape of this top is different to what I tend to wear, but I like it. I think the combination of the cut and the fabrics means it has both structure and softness. And I'm already looking around Pattern Runway's site at their other patterns trying to decide what other patterns I want to make!