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Jacobean Jacket (DA501) - Embroidery

4/30/2020

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Continuing work on my Jacobean jacket.  The pattern is picked, the godets sewn in.  Now it's time to embellish the body of the jacket before sewing it together.  My goal is to put enough embroidery on the yellow twill to give it a historic look and make the black and white linen look less jarringly different.  The Elizabethan aesthetic (which is my inspiration for this project) is unabashedly cluttered, but still harmonious. 

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Calvin Klein Inspiration Dress

4/27/2020

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I like going to thrift stores and Vintage shops just to walk around.  Secondhand shops are my happy place!  Often, I am shopping for ideas, styles or techniques that I can use in my own work.  Here's a dress I found in September 2019.  The designer is Calvin Klein, and it's a bit fancier than the ready to wear stuff you might find at the mall.  There are lots of nice details, which I took pictures of because I didn't buy the dress. 
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Making the March Sisters

4/23/2020

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Big news in the world of sewing vloggers!  Which is to say, not big news, but I am enthused.  In December 2019, Sony Pictures released a new version of Little Women (Louisa May Alcott's novel about four sisters), directed by Greta Gerwig.  In February 2020, at the 92nd Academy awards, the film won Best Costume Design for Jacqueline Durran's costumes. 
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Apparently, Sony has a good handle on which demographic will truly obsess about their film, because that same month they contacted four historical costumers who have followings on YouTube and asked them to make Little Women inspired costumes, as part of the extended promotion for the upcoming digital and BlueRay releases.  Each vlogger got a copy of the film to watch, a sister to sew for, and sponsorship.  Each made a video showing their project development, talking about the film and their character, and showing the finished costume.  What a great idea!
Today, I'll talk talk briefly about Louisa May Alcott and her novel, ruminate on womanhood in fiction and fashion, and show the various vloggers' creations. 

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Jacobean Jacket - Making Godets

4/20/2020

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I am still working on my embroidered jacket from the Dawn Anderson pattern (Jacobean Jacket - 501).  There are five godets in it, and the instructions for making them seemed a little tricky to me, so I went my own way. 

In this post, I'll explain what a godet is and puzzle over where the word comes from, then show you how I inserted them.  Because my jacket is yellow but the godets are white with black embroidery, the photos are clear and easy to follow! 
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Highlighter Dress in the Wild

4/16/2020

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In 2015, I made what I called my Highlighter Dress, because of its color scheme, like highlighter on white paper. I liked it and wore it frequently, despite its ill-fitting sleeve.  The front of the armscye was not easy enough to allow my arm to move forward, and the sleeve cap was too shallow, creating creases. 

In November 2018, I used Marie Kondo's book as my guide while I cleaned my room and de-stashed my fabrics.  The highlighter dress was by then too small in the chest and too high-waisted for me; I felt like a little girl outgrowing her clothes!  It went to the Goodwill thrift store, and I hoped its next owner would enjoy it. 

Then, in January 2020, I went to Red Fox Vintage to noodle about and look at things, and imagine my delight to see my highlighter dress in the wild!  Some vender had bought it from Goodwill, marked the price up, and was reselling it!  What fun! 
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Hello, old friend!
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It's Cluny lace, not rickrack.
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YouTube Rec: Micarah Tewers

4/16/2020

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Are you being a responsible human being, staying home and keeping to yourself?  Are you doing your bit to protect your community by not breathing on them?  Good for you!  I'll bet you're binge-watching something, too.  Allow me to recommend a YouTuber filled with brio and joie de vivre.  

Her name is Micarah Tewers and she makes clothes.  I suggest her for the following reasons:
  1. Her method of working is refreshingly historical... not that she makes historical costumes (though she does), but that she has a historical approach: no patterns, just pinning things to her body, testing the fit, and improvising.  If you're a sewing geek like me, eager to know all abut pattern drafting and the "right" way of doing things, her videos might make you feel like a kid again, just discovering that with a needle and thread you can turn an old tee shirt into a ball gown for your Barbie.  Watching her simply "wing it" is delightful.  If you're a new sewist, intimidated by all the technical stuff on sewing blogs, and wondering how much time and money you have to invest before you make something worth wearing, Micarah's thrifted flights of fancy are permission to play and encouragement that you can get great results without having all the "right" tools and methods. 
  2. She is funny!  Clearly, she has a theatrical streak (and at least three different voices that she employs for dramatic effect), but she doesn't come across as snobby or out of touch the way many theatricaal people do.  Instead, she's wonderfully accessible.  She's a complete goober, a total dork, and you're invited to join her in her romps.  Her video editing is very MTV... rapid cuts that feel like a strobe light flashing in a club, which can be annoying if you're in a more contemplative mood.  But if you're in the mood for light entertainment, enjoy it!  Like, just watching her crack herself up with puns in her "Turning Adult Diapers into a Wedding Dress" video was hilarious.  I couldn't contain myself.  Ha!
In some ways, she is my working opposite.  Where I over-engineer things, and can find ways to make any project more complicated, she uses hot-glue!  It's fun to watch her work.   

One thing to bear in mind is that even though the frantic pace of the videos seems fast, it takes a lot of editing. As of right now, she doesn't have a lot of videos uploaded, but I have high hopes that more will come.  

Micarah Tewers brings zest, kindness, humor, and goodwill to her videos and her interactions with viewers and followers online.  These good character traits are why I've filed this post under Phillipians 4:8. 
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"Irish Pennants" - some thoughts on being offended

4/13/2020

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Waud, Alfred R. (Alfred Rudolph), 1828-1891, artist / Public domain
My uncle was a US Marine.  Like many Marines, he came out of his service with a fanatical sense of order and cleanliness.  Boy, do they ever bang that into their heads in the Corps!  Anyway, from him I learned the term "Irish pennant"--a stray thread or scrap of fabric in his uniform.  The term comes from the British navy, first recorded use in 1829 to refer to any untidy or loose end of rope, or out-of-place line.  Its use in the US Marines for untidy threads on a uniform developed later. 

My question today is whether the term is offensive.  Its history was almost certainly derogatory: a pennant is a flag; to say that an untidy mess is an Irish flag is to suggest the Irish are untidy messes.  An obvious dig.  But an offensive origin story doesn't make something offensive forever.

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"Red Fox Vintage" dress - barkcloth edition

4/9/2020

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Years ago, someone gave me a few yards of barkcloth, which I've been holding onto, waiting for the right project.  When I first rubbed off the vintage dress from Red Fox Vintage, I knew I wanted to make it up in that barkcloth in the end.  So I have!  This post is mostly about barkcloth, a little about sewing, and then pictures of the finished garment. 

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Making Cotton Face Masks

4/6/2020

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CONTENT NOTICE:
If you are exhausted or stressed from reading/hearing/seeing COVID-19 stuff, don't click on this post.  Do something life-giving instead.  Take care of yourself and your mental health. 


On February 29th, 2020, U.S. Surgeon General Jerome Adams made an interesting Tweet:
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Simplicity 8499 - Rayon

4/5/2020

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Remember this pattern in cotton?  Now I'm making it in rayon!  A rayon challis, to be precise.  Since my previous makes were cotton voile, which has a crispness to it, the shirt will look different in rayon challis, which is light and drapey. 

As for the views, I always make View 3, the one with the notched collar.  I think the other two look more dated.  But View 2 might be really pretty in charmeuse....

Challis (say "SHALL-ee") is a soft woven fabric ideal for blouses, dresses, and scarves.  Its name means "soft".  It's a recent invention, dating back only to the 1830's, when it was made of wool/silk.  Nowadays, I see it most often in rayon (often in bright, busy prints), but occasionally in wool.  I have never seen a cotton or polyester challis. 

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    Karen Roy

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