VPattern: A dress made mo(o)re famous

No new content , so will continue with the visual feast( aka blog fodder).
A version of the instantly recognisable dress from last fall.The original in its various morphs shows the strength of the designer in question.
I do love designers who originate , develop and project their designs by draping.Exacting fit never comes from the cookie cutter school of pattern development
The best bits about the dress are the use of men's suiting and the simple but stunning fit( if one can achieve)
The distinctive and most interesting part of this dress design, the sleeves do nothing for me.

Verdict: Will pass on this pattern
I have OOP Vogue designer patterns/Burda WOF that willfit the bill.
Enjoy

New Fall Vogue Patterns

I am a Vogue Sewing patternaholic .Lately their pickings havent been too great( fewer great designs, slower off the mark to translate the catwalk trends)( Remember the heady days when you could reproduce the same season's collection within weeks/months, great designer selection and even longer pattern wish lists)
But suprise me , this new season collection have a few designs that I really dig.

This is the one jacket that I will ( would like to)be making this winter.
I love the unusual , clever construction details , kicky design details.Beacuase after a few dozen suits , lapels , welts , and sleeve easing can so become boring, I love not knowing quite what the final product will be.
I have a few things I am working on in the background , but nothing I am ready to share online.I will try and link a few more of the new patterns as blog fodder over the next week or so.

Knitting Update
Shameful me, I have summer knits done , waiting to mattress stitch the sides or sew on the ruffles or in the case of Vittadini SSummer 2005 cover lace cardi , just to cast on the last 280 x two stitches which triplicates .Yikes
I never got round to looking at the Vittadini 2006 book , took forever to come online , by which time I just wasn't interested.
Need to cast on for a small cotton blend shell ,..................................

Shapewear (Not Spanx)

I have just finished a prototype of the thigh slimmer shapewear, actually a knock off version of a TNT( tried and tested) RTW.
Too (cheap) thrifty to shell out over 50.00GBPounds, I decided to have a go at making a clone.
As I had a stash of lingerie and bra making findings acquired from the sample studio of the said lingerie manufacturer , I knew if I could reproduce the pattern and perfect the specialist sewing techniques I was on my way to saving loads of money.


Scramble online produced an OOP Kwik Sew girdle pattern # 2152

Original pattern pieces created by a combination of pencil tracing and measurements.
The supplies were assembled
Satin Powernet( Industrial Strength)
Powernet
Plush Elastic
Wooly nylon thread( bobbin and overlocker)
Polyester thread
Taunton Press Book ; Sewing Knits
Singer series Book: Sewing Lingerie .........an excellent book despite its age
Expresso coffee on the tap.

Required Sewing skills:
Able to cut small fiddly odd shaped pattern pieces( best done with small rotary cutter)
Able to stitch accurate 6mm seams
Manipulating curvy seams
Application of elastic on high stretch materials
Use of speciality stitch on my machine.
Viking Orchidea stitch A6 and A7..........nice stretch stitch

Couple of hours later the spanxette was done
Great fit, believe that.Was able to slither into a new RTW linen skirt whose zipper wouldnt budge san reinforcement.

Despite having over 60 sewing books , there isnt a lot covering Shapewear , pattern drafting , sewing techniques etc.
The web is a great resource for searching online stores for ideas.One only worries about what the webcrawlers might make of a change in search request.
Also make sure to put adult filters on the search .

I have a whole summer /autumn of trying out other types of lingerie sewing

Sewing not Knittin Wins

It is quite strange to keep on online journal about knitting.Yes I do love to knit and crochet and maybe even cross stitch, but sewing is where my heart is.

In the last couple of{ really difficult} years , knitting has been a safety net.A great outlet to create with my hands , absorbing enough to blot the pain and dull the despair .Difficult enough( translating French , German and Dutch patterns)and learning new techniques , yarn types etc.

I will have a better chance to keeping a journal going longish term if I combine my musings all in the same place.I will try and link all the sewing sites and resources and get the projects ruminating in my head down in print .

Some vintage images that somewhat define an aspect of sewing and dressmaking that really get s me enthralled



Yes , Issey Miyake and then some more.Watch this space

Too Cool (Hot) to Knit

I am still about the internet but not posting much.We are having maybe the hottest spell of the year in London
It is way too hot to knit except some 2 ply number.This means the knitting machine ,not a pretty sight all that carriage pushing . I would prefer to be outdoors in the park doing manual labour.
I am actually doing a lot of what is my primary hobby.Sewing.

Scrap the knitting journal or combine with my baby Sewin Blog????
Then I will ( in theory should) have lots to talk about , pictures to post.
Until I decide , off to browse some pattern reviews online and be inspired

Dont know what is next.