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Quirky Quentin Dress (Simplicity 9360)

6/1/2020

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I have been binge-watching Poirot, a British murder mystery series, wherein actor David Suchet gets to explore and reprise the role of Agatha Christie's Belgian detective over the course of seventy episodes, from 1989 to November 2013.  Each episode is interesting, but Poirot's character arc over the whole series is quite interesting, too.  Amazingly, when you consider how many years the series ran, how many production teams and writers came and went, and even a change of studios and format midway through, there's is good continuity and a consistent timeline.  The earliest we see of Poirot is in the late 1920's, when he arrives in England as a refugee from WWI Belgium, and the latest we see is in the 1949, when he dies.  However, most episodes are set in the world of 1936. 
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I highly recommend David Suchet's Being Poirot for insight into the making of the series. 

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1933 Vest (M7056)

5/13/2020

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Today, I'll be making a modern pattern from a vintage collection.  McCall's 7056 is  a vest pattern, which can be made with or without notched collar/lapels.  I opt for the collared version (view B).  I wish they had the pattern for the skirt in there, but they don't.  That's what I call false advertising! 
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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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"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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Anne Adams Inspiration

1/2/2020

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While I was researching my Anne Adams pattern (Anne Adams 4882), I found myself on the Vintage Patterns Wikia.  They did not have an entry for my exact pattern, but they had quite a few other patterns by the same company.  I started clicking through, delighting in the inspiration.  After all, now that I know I can make my own, perfectly fitting patterns from my sloper, I can make any of those, and not need to buy patterns for them!  Wow!

Today's post will be a collection of Anne Adams inspiration pictures... things I'd like to make or learn from, as well as some thoughts about the internet.  I do not own these pictures; they were made available on the Vintage Patterns wiki by other folk, for the purposes of study and inspiration, which is exactly how I'm using them. 

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Anne Adams 4882 - re-draft and make!

12/30/2019

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Almost two years ago, I got excited by a vintage pattern that was far too large for me: Anne Adams 4882.  I set it on the back burner of my brain, thinking I'd try grading it down someday. 
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More recently, I made myself a half-way decent sloper!  (No, I haven't blogged about that yet.  The problem is that the pics are boring.  Well, I'll probably get around to it eventually; in the mean time, here's the Cliff's Notes: it was easy to make the sloper bodice and skirt, though I took extra time following a book's instructions.  The sleeves were what Angela Clayton might call a "circle of hatred".  But I got something workable in the end.)
Combining my new sloper with the nice pattern illustrations for Anne Adams, I was finally ready to make myself this dress!  This won't be a comprehensive project diary, just a highlight reel. 

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60's Tabard Dress - FINISHED PICS!

9/20/2019

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Since my new silk dress is made of kimono fabric... I think a Japanese restaurant is a nice backdrop for showing the vintage Asian look of the dress!  Add bouffant Sixties hair, little white gloves, and Whiting & Davis* purse for the full retro look! 

Right off the bat, look how much nicer it looks with the waist cinched, as contrasted with the square silhouette it had mid-construction.  
* I just discovered that Whiting & Davis is still around!  Cool! 

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60's Tabard Dress - CONSTRUCTION

9/18/2019

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I have decided to call this pattern my 60's Tabard Dress.  (Ignore all the pictures of the pattern where I clearly wrote "50's Tabard Dress".... the pattern I'm replicating is from the 60's, so 60's Tabard Dress it is!)

​In its construction, I took over 86 photos, but I'll only be highlighting the especially interesting parts today!  
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Patterning a Dress Based on a Picture!

9/1/2019

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August was a busy month for me, sewing-wise.  I made two shirts for my brother, a sloper for myself, and a silk dress for myself.  I'll be blogging about them all out of order, though.  I'll start, today, with the silk dress project, because I'm most excited about it.  Then, once my brother gets and models his new shirts (linen and cotton ikat), I'll post those project diaries!  Then I'll get into the nitty-gritty of drafting/draping sleeves for my sloper, because that was a bear of a job, and I need time to sort the pictures and write something coherent. 
Today is the first of three posts about the silk dress project.  It starts with a challenge: to look at a picture of a dress, pattern it, and make it. 
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Other posts: dress construction, finished pics.

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"Red Fox Vintage" dress - pattern fixes

8/19/2019

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Working on the Red Fox Vintage dress again!  To refresh your memory, here's a picture of me in the quilting cotton version of this dress, after a day of wear.  The benefit of making a test garment from such an unforgiving fabric is that it highlights all the pattern problems so I can fix them.  In this case, there are three big issues.  Look at the creases and shadows to see:
  • skirt back is sagging at the waistline -- needs to be tugged upward there;
  • skirt front -- same problem as skirt back;
  • poorly drafted sleeve doesn't have enough height in the sleeve cap...
    • possibly a related issue, the bodice back near the top may be too broad, which warps the shape of the armscye.
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    Karen Roy

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