red silk::day 4

We seem to have pretty varied ideas about our Christmas party dress, but here's what I'm hearing the most:

So we'll proceed with a square neckline, cap sleeves, and shirred front. 

Again, our seven step pattern drafting checklist...

1) Waist
2) Armhole/Sleeve
3) Neckline
4) Closure
5) Style Lines
6) Skirt
7) Seam and Hem Allowance

Let's start!

Waist

We're going to do a below-waist princess bodice with a tiered skirt.  First we need to make the princess seams and lengthen the waist.  More, of course, about this in the Princess Styles lesson on the lessons page. 

I've added 4" in length. 

Now, I'm only going to add enough flare at the seams to ensure ease at the hips.  So I'll take a hip measurement, 24", and add 10% for ease, and end up with 26.4".  I find that the waist after the dart is removed is 23.65".  So we need to add 2.75" into our seams here. 

Since we'll be adding width on each side of each princess seam and each side of each side seam, we have 12 opportunities to add width.  2.75 divided by 12 is just shy of 1/4".  So we'll add 1/4" (the little purple wedges in the illustration there) to each pertinent seam. 

Armhole/Sleeve

Since we're going to be using a sleeve, we won't alter the armhole.  We're going to use a cap sleeve that's puffed just a little.  Instructions on creating the cap sleeve can be found in the Sleeve Styles lesson on the lessons page. 

What we'll end up with is something that looks a little like what we've got on the top here.  I think a 2" sleeve will be adequate.  

Then we'll add a little gathering at the top by cutting the sleeve and adding a little wedge like in the bottom illustration.  

Because this sleeve has a curved hem, we'll need to face this sleeve.  So we'll need a sleeve lining pattern.  It seems to me we can use either the original cap sleeve pattern, or the one with the gathers at the cap for our lining pattern.  What do you think?  Which one ought we to use?

That's all for today.  Tomorrow we'll move on to the neckline.  See you then!

~Erin~

red silk::day 3

Hello again!  Back for more fashion plates?  Okay.  If you insist!

We have just a few more design decisions to make before we can go to drafting the pattern.  This one is going to have to be quick...how many days till Christmas?

We need to decide on a neckline and sleeves.  We can do a square neckline, as at left here, or a round neckline, as at right.  (Or, I suppose, a neckline that you come up with that we all like better than either of these.)

We also need to decide on sleeves.  I have cap sleeves over there on the left, and puffed sleeves on the right.  If we do puffed, we can finish the edge of the sleeve with a ruffle or bias binding. Again, we'd all entertain another sleeve suggestion. 

One more design feature I submit to you is this:

We could, if you wanted, take that middle panel and shir it all up so that just the middle front is gathered from princess seam to princess seam.  That would give us some texture in the front there, but may keep us from using the cute buttons just below the neck, since it'd be awkward to place them.  I don't know how this would look on a little girl's dress, but we can try it if you'd like. 

I also was unable to find an invisible zipper for the center back, so I bought a regular zipper, and I think we'll have to do it lapped.  Which means we'll have the zipper overlap to play with, and we could add a row of covered buttons on the overlap, like they do on wedding dresses.  Just a thought there.

Okay, so what we need in order to move on is: neckline style, sleeve style, and whether we want the center front panel shirred.  After that, it's drafting for us!

 Thanks,

~Erin~ 

red silk::day 2

Do you remember that toy where you took the little plastic plates for different articles of clothing and rubbed over them with a crayon to make your model wear different styles?  I loved that thing.  That's a little like what we're going to do today.  We're going to play Fashion Plates. 

But first, I was asked a couple of times where I get my fabric.  At the risk of sounding like an ad, I tell you I love fabric.com.  They always have something I can sink my needle into, they're always prompt and helpful if I have a question, their prices are very decent, and their fabric is very nice quality.  I suppose they actually have some that isn't nice quality, but you can usually tell by the price.  The only problems I've encountered with them are problems inherent with buying fabric I haven't actually seen, such as the time I received a fabric with a pattern on it too impossibly huge to look anything but comical on a little child.  I sent it straight back, and they paid the return shipping.

So, when I'm shopping for fabric the first place I go is fabric.com.  (Are you listening, fabric.com?  Don't send money.  Send fabric.)

Also, the dress in the website header is a two-piece dress, with a sleeveless, yoke-style slip, with ruffles and pintucks on the skirt, and a princess-style overdress, with lantern sleeves and bustles on the sides created by running ribbons in and out of buttonholes spaced evenly from waist to hem.  And my daughter hates it.  Oh, the inexplicable taste of a six-year-old.  I may show pictures of that dress another day.

For now, however, it's Fashion Plates for us.

Your suggestions yesterday included this:

Which I would call A-line, round collar, puffed sleeved, and knife-pleated,

                                                                                        and this:

A shirtdress with a yoke seam, straight sleeves and ruffles on the sides of the placket. 

My own thought when I saw these fabrics together was something like this:

A princess-style dress in the red, with a tier skirt, round or square neck, and a cap or puffed sleeve, and a jacket-y overdress of the gold net, with a ribbon to tie at the waist, several-puffed sleeves, and a cutaway hem that shows the red ruffly tier skirt.

So now, I point out with amusement, we've offered one of each silhouette.  What we need now is a consensus.  In which direction shall we go?  A-line, yoke, or princess? 

Fashion plates, fashion plates. 

~Erin~

red silk::day 1

Oh how I have enjoyed reading your comments!  If you're reading this, and you haven't read the comments to red. silk., you really must.  I loved the images all of you painted for me, of Christmas skirts and tops, of stockings and pillows.  Only problem is, now I'm going to have to buy about 20 more yards because I found myself nodding in agreement over every entry.  I do want that red skirt with a black beaded snowflake.  I would love the Italian smocked throw pillows.  And thank you, thank you Jeannie, for the hilarious poem.  I agree.  Thank you so much to all of you for playing.  It was good to peek into your sewing souls for a second.   

And so, without more babbling, the winner, chosen by random.org, is Karen S., who said, "Ahhhh...! It is so gorgeous! I think I would take the red silk and quilt it on the longarm and then make a jacket for my DGD. I would finish the edges with a binding and decorate the jacket front with densely hand-stitched floral embroidery...Hope to win!"  Send me your address using the contact form on the right sidebar there and you'll be quilting it up in no time!

What summed it up for all of us, I think, was Chris' comment: "I would love it."  Let's get to loving it, shall we?

Now, I'm thinking we ought to make a Christmas dress.  That's my story, and I'm sticking with it.  I'm thinking maybe two parts, a red silk dress, with a lace...overdress/jacket/shrug...something.  I love the way this gold lace looks over the top of the silk. 

Also, we have those buttons.  Little gold and rhinestone buttons.  And 1/2" cover-able buttons.  (I tried to find smaller, do they not have smaller than 1/2"?) 

So.  We need to know where to begin.  As always, we need to start with a silhouette.  Princess, yoke, A-line?  Any design ideas yet?  Sleeves?  Neckline?  Style lines?

Talk to me.  Let's do it.

~Erin~

red. silk.

I have a serious relationship with fabric.

It is not platonic. 

I don't live anywhere near a decent fabric store, so I have to order all my fabric and wait for it to come to me.  But when it does...oh, when it does, when I get a stack of neatly cut and folded fabric all packaged up, it's like Christmas.  I just want to run my finger down the stack of folded edges, smell the starchy-new smell, rub each piece against my cheek. 

Maybe it's good, on second thought, that I can't do all that in public.  

Today, in my sewing room, I have this:

Here.  Let me crumple that up for you so you can see it all...crumpled up.  You understand the need to see it all crumpled, I assume.

I figured you would.  Good to know we're speaking the same language here.

Now.  This here is only really 45% silk, the other 55% is cotton.  But I'm sure our old friend cotton will understand if we're a little breathless when silk's in the room.  We spend a lot of time with cotton, after all.  This is a lightweight, cotton/silk poplin, 45" wide, and today I'm giving it away.  2 whole yards of slippery, deep crimson silk poplin.  It's labeled "hand wash".

We're going to make our next project with this, of course, but to enter today's drawing, all you need to do is tell me, in the comments section, what you would do with 2 yards of Christmas-red silk poplin.  It doesn't even have to involve children's clothing if you don't want.  We'll close comments tomorrow, December 2, at midnight, and announce the winner on Thursday.

Do be thinking about what we are going to do with the fabric we still have left.  I'm thinking we need a stunning Christmas dress...

In the meantime, I'm pondering this question.  How am I supposed to do laundry, or make dinner, or wash dishes when there's silk in the house?

~Erin~