Tripping around in circles

After nearly a decade of being a Long Skirt Person I have been expanding my wardrobe to include more pants and short skirts. A style I have long admired is the long-yoke-and-pleats look but didn't know where to get it or how to wear it. But, given the aforementioned style experimentation, I was beginning to see how it would fit into my wardrobe.

I had drawn a design a while ago and had mentally picked some stash fabric and a pattern, so it was time to get it all out and see if my plan would actually work. The design featured an asymmetrical yoke, two layers of ruffles over one layer of mesh and a circle-skirt layer over everything.

For someone who can't draw, a kids' fashion design book is a great tool.

Ingredients:
264 x 75cm curtain offcut
Black mesh
Kwik sew 3362
Interfacing
Lining
Thread-for-topstitching

From having made the pattern before, I knew where the yoke would sit on me and how it would hang (by which I mean it has a weird nobble on the side seam where the yokes go together that needs to be smoothed out a bit). I left the top yoke as is and extended the second layer down into an A-line shape. My plan was to make up the body of the skirt and then mock-up the circle layer onto it in order to decide how long to make it. Since I was dealing with a limited amount of fabric, I decided to line the yoke in a different fabric (black) so I would have more of the main fabric available for the circle and ruffles.

I didn't make a mock-up because I had made the skirt before, and tried it on as part of my pattern making. But when I tried on my new version it didn't do up – by a fair bit. The lower part was wonky and didn't fit together easily with the top. Some of this might be due to 'the mysteries of fabric' but I suspect the original pattern of being kind-of dodgy. I haven't worn my other skirt very much – there's something slightly off about it. I thought the problem was lower down than the pieces I was repurposing but maybe not.

Chief suspect

After a small meltdown, I significantly widened the pattern for the top yoke and re-angled the lower piece top edge to meet it. And got rid of the nobble properly because what I'd done the first time hadn't got it completely. Then, I made a mock-up of the skirt.

I then mocked up the circle layer by cutting out a very big circle and cutting out the waist to be a bit larger than the yoke measurement. I sewed the round waist into the asymmetrical yoke, then cut back the edge of the circle so it would be a parallel with the hem (ground/waist/horizon – I forget what I measured it from). It ended up looking like this:

So, with some careful placement, I could recut the yoke and skirt and just have enough left for the circle and several widths for ruffles. I made up the inner and outer layers separately as much as I could to avoid fitting things awkwardly around the sewing machine. This skirt was a whole conundrum of working out what order to do things in and which way to face the seam allowances. I got some of it right, but also ended up hemming the ruffles after everything was sewn together which was definitely not the best way.

Outside, inside.

I was worried that after a few years of not doing any invisible zips I would have forgotten how to do them, but I think this is one of my best.

I had originally imagined gathering the ruffles, but when I looked at how that would sit, it was a bit too plain, so I decided on box-pleating them instead. I sewed three widths together for each layer and eyeballed the pleat sizes. This came to almost the length of the hem, and I had enough left in scraps to make up gap.

The mesh layer is knife pleated. I tacked down the pleats before ironing them to avoid the fabric melting from the hot pins, and finished the top edge with Hong Kong binding.

When attaching the ruffles, I made sure to stagger them so one layer had its box over the other layer's inverted box.

All the hems and the top and bottom of the yoke have two rows of topstitching, some of which were twin needled and some of which were just done carefully (so I could see the hem I was supposed to be sewing down).

I'm really happy with how the skirt turned out. I had moments of nearly giving up, but the finished product looks as polished as I'd hoped and I've worn it quite a bit. Most of me wants to never touch the pattern again, but there is a little part that thinks, cos it's fixed now, if I want a symmetrical yoke, I may as well just adapt it some more.

A defiant capitulation to entropy

When I like things, I tend to want to save them for the perfect project or perfect occasion. Or I work under the assumption that once I have something it will always be available whenever I need it. Unfortunately, the passage of time can have different ideas. My 'good' pyjama top, the one for wearing on camps or when visiting relative, isn't so good any more. After some fruitless searching for a replacement I liked as much – or at all – I elected to make my own. I traced a pattern from my old shirt and found a beautiful cotton knit at Spotlight (it's so soft).

I have some lovely, shiny paints left-over from some Barbie costumes I made probably 10 years ago. Faced with the realisation that these paints wouldn't last forever either, I thought it would be nice to add a picture to my new pyjama top. I have several peacock garments but nothing with butterflies, which I also like a lot. (There's a theme here – I like only the fanciest creatures.)

I printed the design on overhead transparencies and cut out a stencil. On opening the paints, I had a moment of panic as they are more gel than liquid now. Thankfully, they weren't too dried up to use, but I had to dab them on more than paint with them.

The final touch was a decorative stitch around the neckline. The original shirt has this in silver, so I kept with the metallics and used gold.

Once the butterfly was painted on, any 'what are you working on' discussions, with my parents or with visitors, ended in the conclusion that this garment couldn't possibly be pyjamas. So it has ended up in my daytime wardrobe as a comfy, casual tee which is great for getting the most out of my painting effort.

I haven't solved my pyjama problem though.

2020 Review

Thus endeth another year. I did some sewing this year, mostly for practical reasons but given the shortness of the list I am including more construction details than in my usual reviews.

Creating
The black knit skirt I made in 2017 has been a staple of my wardrobe ever since and was starting to wear out. I knew it would need replacing at some point during the year, so in March I made a trip to Spotlight to pick up some fabric. The next weekend lockdown started, so I got there just in time. I got a plain black, to replace my current skirt, and dark purple. The pattern is McCalls 6608.

I made a new corset, from the Laughing Moon Dore pattern, using only stash materials (except for the eyelets). I've changed shape a bit and am working out how to fit it – this was about 80% there. The fabric is two different curtain samples.

Adjusting
In utility items (usually my mother's sewing arena) I made myself a pillow. I prefer a thin, firm pillow and have found no commercial ones complying with those requirements so I bought an $8 piece of foam and covered it in some leftover cotton. Then I sewed a new side and back seam for my existing pillowcase to go over it.

I significantly altered a bought dress to fit me. I ordered the dress online and when it arrived it was the right size but was definitely made with a differently shaped person in mind. The dress consists of a knit underlayer and a woven mesh overdress. The underdress measured 10 cm smaller than my hip measurement and, while it could stretch around me, it got stuck on my hips and didn’t hang neatly or comfortably. The underdress has a feature print and, with the dress held still at the hip, the print got bunched up in places and did not look good.

My initial plan was to add some gores to the side seams but after I unpicked them and tried on the dress, I found it wrinkled horribly in the back. I cut the back up the middle and, on trying it on again, found that the fabric sat more naturally with a large split in the back and only a narrow separation at the sides.

I cut a gore the size of the back split and inserted it into the dress. I cut the side gores as strips and freestyle-tapered them in to the seams. The dress has its side seam allowances facing outwards (being a lining) so I matched that with the side gores but did not use that method for the back gore, where it would be more visibly messy.

It's not the neatest sewing I've ever done but from the outside, it doesn’t look like anything happened to it and the dress sits nicely now. While I was taking the dress apart, I also shortened the shoulder straps by 2 inches. The neckline had been lower than I like and the armholes were positively gaping. For this adjustment I did make a particular effort to be neat. I was quite happy with the experience of customising the dress and may figure this into my clothing shopping options in the future.

"Muslin always turns to some account or other"

I wasn't planning to go to the Jane Austen Festival this year. I had something else on that weekend and I figured that Jafa's on every year so I'd give it a miss and come back with some new dresses next year.

And then they announced that it would be the last one. I couldn't miss that.

So two months out, Lady B and I (and Lady B's family) bought tickets for Sunday. After getting some Life out of the way we started sewing with two and a half weeks to go.

Lady B was making herself a ballgown and open robe. I needed a new daydress because I've worn all the ones I have at least twice now. That, and I had the perfect fabric set aside and this would be my last chance to use it. (Without Jafa, I never have to do regency again! 🙂🙃🙂)

My fabric came from Patchwork on Parker in Cootamundra. My mum found it one time when she was there without me and, after a quick SMS consultation, bought 4m – enough for a regency gown. The fabric instantly reminded me of one of my favourite dresses from the BBC Pride and Prejudice.

I had to re-jig my standard regency pattern (adapted, probably now unrecognisably, from figure 37 in The Cut of Women's Clothes) to go with my new 1815 stays. Which meant raising the waistline and lengthening the skirt and widening the bodice to allow for the gathering. I first thought of making it drawstring but decided that actually I would rather get the gathers arranged how I like them, then make them stay there by sewing them to a tape.

The skirt I knife pleated to the bodice – largely by guesswork (ie redoing it over and over while the night got later and later).

I couldn't tell how the dress from the show did up the back. I suspect it may have been buttons, but I don't so much care for buttons (they are uncomfortable to lean against and require the making of buttonholes) so I went with self fabric ties. So, after 10 years and 6 dresses, I finally have the archetypal regency plain, pale muslin dress.

It's really boring.


I also assisted Lady B with fitting her (much fancier) ballgown. Once more, those patternmaking classes paid off and I'm getting a hang the 'art' of it. After imitating my teacher by staring at a pattern going 'hmmm' to myself, and having some wild moments of 'I think it needs this adjustment – no that's ridiculous – but I think it will work", all the issues were successfully solved as they arose. We finished our gowns on Friday night in the hotel room in Sydney (where we were for the other event of the weekend).

Lady B is on the right in her new gown. Photo by Steven Shaw. 

We had both booked in to a 9am session on the Sunday morning and after getting home from Sydney the night before – well, frankly, we were probably better rested than if we'd been at the Saturday ball. The talk was about Jane Austen's faith and representation of the church, and how her value of a sincere personal faith came through in her letters and novels.

Then came the picnic where we were joined by Lady B's family.

Happily my spencer suits my dress very nicely. The fit worked surprisingly well given that it was made for different stays.

Then back for a class on making fly fringe:

And time to get ready for the ball where I re-wore my 1830s silk ballgown.

Photo by Steven Shaw

I was especially happy with how my hairstyles turned out for the day.

Time to trim the threads

The Canberra Show has come and gone. I entered two items: the Amygdala onesie and my 1830s ballgown. Because the Show no longer has the Costume or Historical categories, the only options for my garments were Winter/Summer Garment and Miscellaneous Sewing. I won second prize in both categories.

Now is probably a good time to mention that this blog is likely to be going on hiatus for a while. I mentioned in my review of last year that I had been spending more time on music and I've kept doing that to the extent that I'm pretty much not sewing at the moment. I never like it when blogs I follow just stop, leaving no clue about what happened to the person behind them, so I want to say what's going on at the moment. I do not know if this new interest is likely to last a few months, like the brief obsession I had with nuclear power plants the year before last, or 15 years, like costuming.

Here is the last thing I sewed: a quick cover for my pillbox hat so I could be a
'lady going to a funeral' at a dress up party with the theme 'Somewhere else to be'.

If I sew anything in the coming weeks or months I will come back and post about it. I miss the blogging. For now I don’t feel a need to be sewing; even though I have unfinished plans, I am (unusually for me) content with that. Maybe a silk Victorian ballgown was the final boss and I won the game. I can do this and I am good at this; it's time for a new challenge. But I also enjoy writing and without sewing to blog about, I don't have the same opportunity for that. Writing lyrics isn't quite the same thing (especially at beginner level – so don't expect to see an original song on here any time soon).

Anyway, this is my farewell, for the time being, from this particular venture. I wasn't expecting this, although I began to have some suspicions towards the end of last year that sewing wouldn't be my primary focus much longer. However I wasn’t certain enough to say anything then. But now it's well into the year and I have no sewing to post about so it seems time to put down a milestone.

2018 Review

My main goal with sewing this year was to work through my fabric stash and backlog of plans rather than add new projects. To that end, I made several items for which I've had designs or fabric lurking around for years.

Real clothes
I did have one final 'proper shop' in Cabramatta's fabric district at the start of the year but it didn't do too much damage to the stash as I turned out two maxi dresses the next weekend. Turns out not buying fabric is a great way to save money that I can then spend on... fabric. I have always loved paisley but even though it is 'in' now, it never seems to be in my colours. I decided to search etsy on a whim one day and came away with busy purple paisley for a maxidress. I’ve got eight of these dresses now, which is probably enough.

In a moment of ‘I need to sew something’ I turned, as I have done before, to the 1940s. A modified Simplicity 1587 resulted in two dresses, one of fabric bought (last year) for the purpose and another from the stash. And then I made a hat to match, because I could.

Turning to my other favourite 20th century decade, the 70s (I hadn’t realised that was a category for ‘favourites’ until someone asked me what mine were, and turns out it is), I made a halter gown with attached cape from Style 1353.

I added a peacock tag to my blog because five garments make a Thing. This year in peacock fashions, I used the bleaching technique I developed for the Assassin's Creed Revelations costume to add a peacock design to a bought tank top.

I finally found fabrics (including a peacock feather print) that would work for a shirt design I drew ages ago. I like how it turned out but haven’t worn it yet as I don’t know what wear it with.

Speaking of styles of clothes I don’t wear, I gave myself a shock at the start of the year by buying, and regularly wearing, ripped black skinny jeans (that actually fit me). I also wanted what would be, I guess, the skirt equivalent but there the shops were less helpful so I made my own heavily-eyeletted black skirt.

Costumes
Also in the interest of Finishing Things, I had leatherworking classes at Birdsall Leather in preparation for finally completing my Assassin's Creed costumes. When I got back from the trip I promptly didn’t do any work on them as the Jane Austen festival was looming.

Mum bought and set up a lovely little leather workstation for me for my birthday. I made a start but had to let the Gamma.Con deadline slip as my health required that I slow down a bit.

My blogging and sewing reduced a bit in the second half of the year, partly for health reasons and partly because I've been putting more of my 'hobby' time into music. I started with a new singing teacher at the beginning of last year and the process of switching from classical to contemporary style has been a (fun and exciting) challenge requiring more practice than I used to do. And then I decided to learn bass guitar because, you know, not enough stuff to do.

For Jafa I made a pink ballgown based on an 1815 fashion plate and a silk 1830s ballgown. Turns out:
a) silk is great,
b) free silk is better (I won a voucher), and
c) not enough silk can, in fact, be a good thing. This design was very much an exercise in limitations causing creativity and the dress is better for it.

Besides the ballgowns, I also made a chemisette, two chemises and a pair of gloves. (The gloves were finished after Jafa and are incredibly dodgy.)

Other people
I was commissioned to make a onesie based on the Amygdala character from the book Hey Warrior. This isn’t the first commission I’ve done but it kind of felt like it was, as I am a bit more socially distant from the commissionee and I had to write an invoice like a Professional Adult.

A lot of the clothes I make I wear to work and one of my colleagues asked if I could give her lessons to make Butterick 6018. I was keen to do this as, while I have done some sewing with people before, since then I have had lessons myself and can show people proper techniques instead of ‘this is what I made up’.

Events
My most significant event this year was Jafa, where I had a great time. I gave Gamma.Con a miss but did make it to Ironfest wearing Eowyn’s riding outfit. As events go, I have done Ironfest now and don’t need to go again.

I finally got to History Alive this year after many years of missing it due to uni exams, starting work and being overseas. I had great fun riding a 'ye olde' bike and doing more regency dancing. My cousin made an 18th century dress in the week leading up to the event, which is super impressive. I wore my 1830s gown and my dad dressed to match in his regency suit.

The saddest event was the closing down of Cardif Collective's haberdashery storefront. It will be missed (although, thanks to the closing down sale, I now have a bolt of ludicrously cheap silk taffeta I can cry into).

I entered the Canberra Show again this year and my 1830s day dress, entered in the miscellaneous category, won champion of the sewing section. Please bring back the historical and costume categories! I got a first with a 1940s dress and second with my 1830s bonnet – my first time competing in millinery.

Speaking of miscellaneous
I made swimming togs last year and actually wore them this year, so I can report that this was a successful venture.

Despite all appearances to the contrary I have not forgotten my Bayeux tapestry dress. I spend 20-30 minutes on it a week (a sermon’s-worth) and have got another two scenes finished.

Plans
I was pretty happy with knocking planned and prepared projects off my to-do list so I think I’ll keep trying to do that next year. I have two significant projects in that category: finishing the Assassins and a ground-up 18th century outfit to be ready for Jafa 2020. I have already started the stays.

I want to make a distinctively 1920s gown as well but I don't have a design as yet. If anyone has advice about how to do a historically accurate flapper look when you have hips please send it my way – I'm struggling.


Now... bring me that horizon!