Robes de Coeur
  • Blog
  • Quilting
  • Clothing
    • Menswear
    • Womenswear >
      • Self-Made Patterns
      • Commercial Patterns
    • Hats
    • Miscellany
  • About
  • Blog
  • Quilting
  • Clothing
    • Menswear
    • Womenswear >
      • Self-Made Patterns
      • Commercial Patterns
    • Hats
    • Miscellany
  • About

Alteration: Round Neckline to V neck

2/26/2018

1 Comment

 
Picture


Today's post shows a simple alteration to turn a round neckline into a V neck, on a formal gown made of stretchy fabric and sequined lace.  You could do it by machine if you have a machine that doesn't eat knits, but I was using a borrowed machine that did like to eat knits, so I sewed this by hand. 

Read More
1 Comment

A Child's Nightcap

2/22/2018

2 Comments

 
It seems I am not the only one who likes nightcaps!  While visiting my family recently, I was wakened by my five-year-old niece.  She asked me what was on my head, and I groggily explained that my nightcap kept my head warm, my hair neat, and spiders out of my ears.  So she decided she wanted one!  Knowing the transience of a child's desires, I didn't jump to make her one... until she'd asked over and over for a week and a half. 

All right, then!  Into her mom's stash we went, and she selected raspberry-colored satin and blue-green sari fabric.  Knowing the cap would need more body than those flimsy fabrics provided, I fetched out the same white fabric I'd used last year for my cap, and decided to use it for the interior. 

Read More
2 Comments

Repairing a Doll

2/19/2018

2 Comments

 
Picture
Elizabeth
When I was a child, my mom inherited her grandmother's Raggedy Ann doll pattern, and I wanted a doll of my own--but not Raggedy Ann.  I had a vision: blonde hair, and a pretty floral dress, and no dorky bloomers!  My mom helped me sew the doll, which makes it, perhaps, one of my first projects ever.  I remember after cutting out the pieces with my mom's help, I went back later and cut off all the seam allowances because I didn't want my dolly to have "fat arms"!  My mom laughed and shook her head and tried to explain that the seam allowances were structural, not seen.  Anyway, I sewed her, and named her Elizabeth, and dragged her all over.  Recently, visiting my parents, I took a look at her and felt sorry for my creation... she needed some TLC!  So, with my five-year-old niece's help, I mended and washed the doll. 

Read More
2 Comments

ALTERATION: Back Darts FTW!

2/15/2018

1 Comment

 
When a simple, ten-minute alteration can turn a dud of a garment into a win, and make the wearer feel great, I am super happy.  While visiting my sister, I worked with her to alter some items in her wardrobe so they'd highlight her beauty.  The biggest problem she faces, like many small but busty women, is that any Ready To Wear (RTW) shirt which fits her bosom will bag out in other places.  In my sister's case, the bagging happens in her back.  So though she has a great figure, she puts on a shirt and feels sloppy and disheveled. 

Read More
1 Comment

Sewing for My Sister

2/15/2018

0 Comments

 
I love to sew for my sister.  One year I made her a Teens Era ball gown (an early exercise in draping), and another year two winter hats (the Russian ice hat and the red tam).  She lives far away, though, which makes garment fitting tricky... you may recall last year's project to make a block of her body so I could customize my dress form here in Portland?  I got mixed results sewing from it: peplum top--good fit, bad style; pinwheel top--good fit, okay style; denim blazer--bad fit). 

Recently, I visited her again, this time with a plan of attack: I brought some patterns to work with, and while I was there I pin-fitted them to her and made muslins.  This was even more helpful than the block in teaching me about the challenges of her body shape... working just with muslin, I was able to replicate her body, but working with pre-made patterns I was able to see how her body most deviates from the average body that patterns are drafted for. 

Moreover, while I was there, I re-visited the denim blazer, altered a few of her Ready to Wear (RTW) clothes, and made a cute nightcap for my niece.  All in all, a productive visit! 

So in the upcoming weeks, you can expect posts on the following (I'll add links in this post as they come live):

ALTERATION - adding back darts to a RTW sweater
A Child's Nightcap
ALTERATION - Round Neck to V neck
McCall's 4968 - Blue tunic top, muslin
Butterick 6134 - Red Raglan-sleeved Top
ALTERATION - another go at the denim blazer! 
Draped Pencil Skirt
0 Comments

Blackwork Ruffle

2/12/2018

3 Comments

 
My first essay into my Elizabethan-inspired ensemble is a blackwork ruffle, mainly because a ruffle can be used anywhere, so I could make it even when I didn't have any clothing patterns.  It seemed a good way to get started on the project and see how I liked blackwork. 

Read More
3 Comments

Elizabethan Inspiration

2/8/2018

1 Comment

 
Do you ever watch historical movies and wish we dressed like that today?  Or wished, as I do, that we dressed something like that... cherry-picking the aspects we like and eschewing the cumbersome or ugly parts?  Well, as the genius behind xkcd reminds us, we are grown-ups, and we can decide what that means.  And for me, it means I don't have to settle for cobbling together outfits from the remnants of only the last few decades.  I can make and wear whatever pleases me.  There's no law on the books that says I have to look like everyone else in my decade!  So I'd like to begin a sartorial art project... to look at my favorite times and places, and use them as inspiration for clothes that are thoroughly my own.  I'll start with the Elizabethan era, because it's got a ton of embroidery and handwork, and lots of layers.  I figure it'll be nice to wear in the winter, but I need to start in the spring if I want it to be done in time. 

Read More
1 Comment

Marvelous Dress, Terrible Photoshopping

2/5/2018

2 Comments

 
Besides clothing and sewing, I have many other interests which don't get highlighted on this sewing blog.  But sometimes, there are intersections!  For instance, I commonly read SorryWatch, a blog about the often difficult by necessary act of apologizing.  Apologizing is something we all need to do sometimes, but mostly do badly; and, as a major catalyst for reconciliation and healing, it deserves attention.  SorryWatch applauds good apologies and the moral courage it takes to make them, while pulling apart bad or weasly apologies and showing why they suck.  But this post, about people in the Democratic Nat'l Committee apologizing (or in some cases failing to apologize) for leaked emails, caught my attention mostly because of the marvelous dress that DNC chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz wears in the top photo, from a 2012 Vogue photoshoot. 

Read More
2 Comments

Anne Adams 4882 - vintage sewing pattern

2/1/2018

1 Comment

 
Remember the stash-fabric/vintage-pattern trade I did a while back?  One of the vintage patterns in the trade has been on my to-sew list ever since!  I love the simple silhouette combined with interesting seam lines and built-in belt.  The illustration with checkered fabric cut on grain for the dress and on bias for the belt is so smart!  ("Smart" in the British sense of the word--stylish, nice-looking.)  It made me want to buy checked fabric and make it up just like the picture! 
Picture
And, as luck would have it, I found just such a fabric at Goodwill one day!  Actually, they had a ton of it, so I bought it all!  The fabric is a woven (not printed) check in dark green.  Very nice drape to it, and nice hand.  I want to make the long-sleeved version of the dress for winter. 

Read More
1 Comment

    Karen Roy

    Quilting, dressmaking, and history plied with the needle...

    Categories

    All
    1910's
    Alteration
    Antique
    Dyeing
    Embroidery
    General
    Hand Sewing
    History
    Lacemaking
    Mending
    Menswear
    Millinery
    Modern Elizabethan
    Musing
    Other Sewing
    Philippians 4:8
    Project Diary
    Quilting
    Regency
    Retro
    Self Made Pattern
    Self-made Pattern
    Terminology
    Victorian
    Vintage

    Blogs I Read

    The Dreamstress
    Male Pattern Boldness
    ​
    Lilacs & Lace
    Tom of Holland
    Fit for a Queen
    Line of Selvage
    Mainely Menswear
    Bernadette Banner

    Archives

    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    August 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017

    RSS Feed

Blog

Quilting

Clothing

About

Copyright Karen Roy
​© 2017-2022