A month of months

Dress with Handkerchief Hem

2019-03-21T14:33:13Z

I can't say that I ever feel dignified on a regular basis. Or on an irregular basis.

The translated title of this book is Garments of a Dignified Lady. Um. Can I actually wear these if I'm not dignifired? Or will it turn me into a dignified lady. Do I want that?

Regardless, I fell in love with the blouse on the cover of this book by Koji Takiguchi published in 2014, and bought it without knowing what else was included. There are so many other wonderful garments in here that I started making dresses before anything else. And these are not my style of dresses - asymmetrical and arty.

I decided to test the "Dress with Handkerchief Hem" with some of the vintage fabric a coworker gave me. It fits fine - it is unstructured and loose enough that choosing to make size ML, instead of M, probably didn't make too much of a difference in the end result.

It probably would have made a
difference in the cutting layout, though!

The fabric is 100% cotton broadcloth and tends to stick to itself and wrinkle. I was going to dye it, since the red and greens are not my colors, however under the chiffon dress, it looks lovely. It adds depth and dimension to the colors. As usual, I have yet to take pics of the chiffon version.

Probably the hardest part was translating the instructions. I figured out, for the most part, using the google translate app and this helpful Japanese sewing terms translation list, what the instructions said. The only part I couldn't really figure out were the instructions on finishing the hem. A friend who studies Japanese figured out that google translate's "throwaway sewing machine" actually meant staystitching. So the hem is left raw and staystitched, as it is all cut on the bias.

And I did keep my sewing machine.

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Twisted Dress

2019-03-21T14:28:05Z

This was another exercise in translating.

This is the Twisted Dress from the Japanese sewing book "Garments of a Dignified Lady" by Koji Takiguchi (2014) published by Bunka.

The second-most challenging aspect of this dress was fusing the tape onto the armholes and neck edge. On very shifty fabric. Fortunately, I got help with that from gorthx , thank you! Also, sewing very shifty fabric.

The dress is made from two layers - polyester georgette and sandwashed rayon - twisted at the hem before sewing together.

It went together pretty simply and quickly, and I noticed that some of the construction techniques were used in RTW, like the armhole finishing.

The sandwashed rayon is luxurious and I miss those rayons from the 90s. Very heavy and drapey.

I forgot to try this on before completely sewing it up. It would have been pretty easy to do that with just the lining. Instead, I found out after the second-to-last step of mostly sewing the hem that the armholes are pretty low. LOW. I added at 3" high gusset to the underarm by taking apart the main fabric and lining and sewing the main-fabric-and-lining-double-layer gusset to each layer separately (so the dress could still twist). However, I could have just sandwiched the gusset between the two layers and sewn them all together and it would have been fine, as the dress would still twist.

The hem is what gives the dress the twist and bubble hem - you layer the dress wrong sides together, and bring the left side seam to the right side seam at the hem, and sew them together, leaving an opening to turn the dress right side out. Which it already was? I had to put this down and talk a walk to figure it out in my head before doing it. It worked, but I'm still not entirely sure how.

If I make it again, I would probably add about 1/4" in width to the outside armholes. This could be fun with contrasting colors of lining and sheer main fabric.

I like it because it's very comfortable, but I'm not sure about the bag shape on me. I feel like it needs pockets.

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Circle Dress Part 2

2019-03-19T14:58:07Z

It's taken me a while to just grit my teeth and get on with writing this up. I finished this back in August. It's now March.

What went right:
This is a drafting exercise from the very beginning of the first book of the Pattern Magic series. After I got a decent sloper, I decided to test this design in a real garment. I combined the "Inserting a circular design line" with the skirt from a 1940s Simplicity pattern, and using more of the upholstery fabric you can see me standing next to.

I interfaced the entire front bodice based on what I learned by taking apart a RTW dress. I found that Pellon 865F Bi-Stretch Lite was closest in look and feeling to the interfacing in the RTW dress. I detailed this in the Circle Dress Part 1 entry.

I used fusible tape on the armholes and the Pellon on the neck facings.

The circle seam in the front has a 1/4" seam allowance and wow, do 1/4" curved seams ever go together well. I didn't have to clip anything.

I took in the side seams a little to get a closer fit.

For sewing and inserting the lining, I used tips from more of Kathleen Fasanella's site about "A better way to sew linings and facings" Part 1 and Part 2. For inserting the lapped zipper, I used her tutorial "Lapped zipper construction". I'm really please with how it turned out.

I really like the fit of this dress as well as the weight of the fabric, how easy it washes and wears, and the drape. I think I might make more dresses out of upholstery fabric!

What went wrong:
This dress really wanted to be a mirror image of itself.

I liked the fabric so much I made a skirt out of the extra - the upholstery book said I needed 5 yds for a channel back chair (I needed maybe 2?) - and then thought I might have enough for a dress.

I managed to cut out two left back bodices, two left back skirts, then another back bodice piece with the wrong center back seam allowance, effectively making it... another left back, but wrong side out. So a right back, but un-useable.

I think something went wrong with the pockets, but it's been so long at this point I can't remember.

At that point, I was reeeally running low on fabric, and in order to get a complete skirt back, I had to piece one together from slivers. If you look at this photo closely, you might see it. If not, great!

I've washed and worn it a few times and it washes and wears wonderfully. I'm just going to take a breather before tackling something like this again.

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Circle Dress part 1

2018-06-10T02:55:13Z

I interfaced the entire front bodice of my circle dress based on the example dress I deconstructed. I found that Pellon 865F Bi-Stretch Lite was closest in look and feeling to the interfacing in the RTW dress.

Also, it did not have the normal sewing industry interfacing instructions - hold the iron on one area for 10-15 seconds. They said to glide the iron across the surface. And I had just read Fashion Incubator's "How to apply interfacing", in which Kathleen Fasanella said basically the same thing, but much more in depth. I used to hate fusing interfacing because it took so long! Just ironing it on is such a relief.

After I figure out whether I need stabilizers on my back darts, I intend to construct the dress using a combination of what I learned from the RTW dress and, again on Fashion Incubator, articles about "A better way to sew linings and facings" part 1 and part 2.

The article "Interfacing, 10 tips" has good info, too.

I sewed the circle dart and the CF seam. The circle seams are 1/4" and the CF seam is 3/8". Sewing a curved seam with 1/4" SAs is so amazingly easy. I did not have to clip anything and it went together so smoothly. SO SMOOTHLY.

Oh, and I may need to trim the back darts?

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Pattern Magic Bunka Sloper

2018-05-08T01:17:58Z

From Wikipedia: "A sloper pattern (home sewing) or block pattern (industrial production) is a custom-fitted, basic pattern from which patterns for many different styles can be developed."

I've been working on a Bunka-style sloper since December. The Bunka sloper is used in the Bunka Fashion College in Japan, as well as the book series "Pattern Magic" by Tomoko Nakamichi, and the Japanese fashion magazine "Mrs. Stylebook". I was thoroughly fascinated by the pattern and fabric manipulation in Pattern Magic¹ when I first came across it. People have made some pretty interesting garments from it. I wanted to try, too!

Then I found out about Mrs. Stylebook - a fashion mag for older women that had the patterns in it, and that you drafted from that same sloper! Whoa! Why can't there be a periodical in America catering to older, fashionable, sewing people?

I used the bodice sloper in the back of Pattern Magic to try the "Inserting a circular design line"². It worked, but did not fit me at all. Enter the Bunka Fashion Series Garment Design Textbook 1 "Fundamentals of Garment Design" put out by the Bunka Fashion College, as well as a sudden deceleration in my progress forward. Wow. This is not a book for beginners.

I drafted a sloper based on my measurements which did not fit. I had no idea how to fix it based on the fitting instructions as they were not detailed enough for me - I need to know specific points on the body where the seams and darts should end. For example, is the wrist point above, on, or below the wrist bone?

So I gave up on the instructions and just adjusted things. With the help of my sister and lots of photographs, I finally got something that I think fits.

I scanned my patterns and loaded them into Inkscape, then traced them with a tool I don't know the name of. It's the one you can make the lines bendy with.

There are three lines:
red - the stock Bunka sloper
blue - the sloper I drafted with my measurements
black - the final adjusted sloper

Square shoulders, anyone?

The Fundamentals book does mention the Bunka sloper is drafted based on average measurements of women in their 20s and that older bodies are shaped differently. Yes, thanks.

The next step is to get the line drawing of my final sloper in a format that will print out actual size across multiple pages. I found a spot-on tutorial on creating tiled sewing patterns on a blog called Grow Your Own Clothes. Missing instructions: Move the printing stuff to the Page Area, then choose Edit -> Resize Page to Selection.

^{1. as well as the Drape Drape series by another Bunka Fashion College graduate, except they have premade patterns - there's no drafting.
2. This is a particularly cool example.}

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