The Silent Three

Meet the Silent Three- schoolgirl comic book heroes who appeared in their own strip in the story paper “The Schoolfriend” which ran from about 1950 to 1963. And, if this Advance pattern from around 1940 didn’t pre-date the Silent Three, I would swear that their subtle style (because of course no one will notice you sneaking around and breaking into houses in a floor length hooded robe and black mask) was a major inspiration for it:

I love old bathing suit patterns, and the suit on this one is quite cute (not sure about the Mrs Mop headwear) but the beach coat looks unfortunately rather like something one of the Silent Three would wear to go undercover at the beach…

Click here to view a full episode of the Silent Three’s daring exploits here at Gateway Monthly.

I’d rather Charleston

Guess what I’ve been doing over the past week or so? Sewing frenetically, and the result is that Hettie’s bridesmaid’s dress is officially finished. You can see Hettie modelling it at a grand trying on session chez nous this weekend in the pictures here and getting into that Charleston vibe.

The sash and neck and armhole binding are a beautiful soft vintage silk from my sash that I guess is kind of a heavy habotai. I dyed it with the same cold water dye that I used on the fabric for the rest of the dress, but I left it in for longer. The armhole bindings also have lace peeping out from under them. You can just see the tulle underslip in the pictures and the batiste layer underneath.

Personally I think the spotty socks set it off beautifully :)

Quick Update

This is just a quick update on Hettie’s Bridesmaid’s dress, before I run to catch a coach down to Kent for the weekend… Because this is written in haste, I haven’t really tweaked the overdress on the dummy so that it hangs right, but here it is:

At the moment, the finished skirt is only pinned to the sash facing (which you can’t see) which is thin cotton and interfacing. The bodice shoulder and side seams have been sewn as hairline seams. I realised that one layer of fabric in the bodice was probably going to be too sheer, so I’ve made two bodices out of the same fabric -one will be the lining- and at the moment they are pinned together inside each other at the neck edge. The dress doesn’t have a sash yet- the bumpy fabric round the middle is the hefty seam allowance I’ve left on the bodice for adjustments…

Another view:

The fabric for the underslip has arrived from Farmhouse Fabrics, all tied up with a ribbon!

So, discerning readers, here are the burning issues which I’ll be mulling over while I’m away. Your artistic input, is, as ever, much appreciated in the comments!

1. How to finish the neck and armhole edges? Satin bias binding? And if so, what colour?

2. The sash, what colour and what fabric? Perhaps to match the neck and armhole binding?

I’m forever hemming petals

I’m so grateful for all the kind words of encouragement I receive on this blog, and most recently for the comments and emails in response to my post A shower of petals where I asked you all for advice on how to hem large semi-circular crepe de chine silk petals cut on the bias without losing my remaining sanity. (I now even know what a wing needle is. Even though I won’t be using one for this project…). I played around with various ideas, but in the end I decided to keep it simple and go for a baby hem. Should any of you have to hem swathes of bias-cut curved silk, I thought I’d share the process below.

First the cutting- I used a trick I’d read about somewhere but been too lazy to bother with in the past: I cut the pieces out by laying out and pinning my silk on top of some thin paper, pinning the pattern pieces through the fabric into the paper, and cutting the silk and thin paper as one. This really did stop the silk from sliding out of grain and also meant that I got a sharp, accurate cut. I hung my pieces to let the bias stretch.

Then, the hemming. First, the edge of the petals were repinned to some thin paper. (I’m using silk pins. And I gave my scissors a sharpen. And I even bought new machine needles!):

Then I stitched about half an inch away from the edge following the curve. The paper meant that the silk stayed put during sewing, and didn’t pucker or get sucked into the machine plate:

Then I pressed the edge of the petal back away from the paper. The stitching on the paper meant the result was a (relatively) clean curve:

Then, I machined as close to the curved edge as I dared:

Then it was time to play chicken with the scissors and cut the excess off as close to this last line of stitching as possible. Then, and only then, I tore away the paper backing:

That’s not very neat. But there we go. Next, I turned the edge over as little as possible and pressed. It didn’t need pinning, and I didn’t bother pinning it to paper again, I simply stitched the edge down keeping a piece of paper underneath as it went through the machine, and then tore the paper away again afterwards. Then, a final press, and…voila…here’s part of the finished hem on the right side of the fabric:

And the back:

All petals are now hemmed. Hurrah!

Those about to dye salute you

This may look like an industrial size portion of Strawberry jelly, but is in fact a tub full of Dylon cold water dye in shade Tahiti Rose (plus cold fix and salt) poised and waiting to gobble up the six metres of silk crepe de chine which is going to be Hettie’s bridesmaid’s dress.
Scary stuff. I wanted to get a very pale pink, and was terrified of getting a pink too vibrant. A tin of dye does 250g of fabric, and I dyed about 600g of fabric using about half a tin of dye. I lowered the damp silk in, and then 20 seconds later after stirring frantically and tearing off my rubber gloves because I couldn’t handle the silk properly (luckily my hands are pink anyway!) I lifted it out and put it in a bath full of cold water to rinse:

Then I looped it up and left it to dry over the bath. The colour is darker when wet, and if it dries and is too pale, I can always dye it again:

But more by luck than by judgement, the result is a lovely light pink. Here’s the dry result, freshly ironed (the camera flash has washed it our a tiny bit):

So now to the cutting…

A whiter shade of pale

I finally splashed out and bought the entire sample pack from fabric supplier Whaleys of Bradford. Whaleys specialise in fabric for dyeing, natural fabrics and fabrics for use in the theatre. So, basically, any fabric as long as it’s white, or shades of. With a few blacks thrown in. Which is all well and dandy for a Bridal dress :)

The swatches (of which there are far more than those shown above) are an education. I never realised there were quite so many different kinds of fabric. There’s some really interesting ones in there that have me dreaming up new projects, but all in good time, all in good time…

So, six metres of heavy silk crepe de chine arrived from Whaleys yesterday. It’s glorious. I realise that a photo of white fabric is pretty low on excitement, but you can see the glorious soft sheen the silk has:

It has a hot (or cold) date with some pink cold water dye (I couldn’t find pale pink silk crepe de chine without paying more in shipping from the US than the cost of the fabric, and even the necessary swatches alone would have set me back a ridiculous flat shipping fee). When it’s pink it’s destined to be the outer layer of Hettie’s Bridesmaid dress. The fine cotton for the underslip of Hettie’s dress is coming from the US, from Farmhouse Fabrics, along with trimmings. (Don’t you just love the word trimmings?) The skirt of the underslip will have a an overlay of this embroidered tulle which comes from ebay store Lindy Laces:

This is pale gold on ivory. I also bought some in silver on white and couldn’t decide between the two, but with Hettie’s help we’ll go for the pale gold- it does look more antique and less glittery.

Hettie came to try on her test dress at the weekend- thanks, Hettie! I think we just about got it to fit after a few adjustments! I was so concerned with fitting it I forgot to take any pictures- sorry about that. I guess the finished dress will be even more of a surprise!

To Hat or not to Hat?

That is the question that has been causing a certain amount of debate in wedding circles as the date of our wedding in June hoves ever nearer. To wear or not to wear? And, if to wear, how to find a hat that suits? In an effort to be helpful, but probably to complicate the buying process still further, I’ve dug out my copy of Dressing Smartly, by Mildred Graves Ryan, a sage tome of sartorial wisdom published in 1956, when a lady wasn’t considered properly dressed without a hat and gloves. Ms. Ryan appears very keen on hats herself: the photo of her on the book’s jacket show her sporting a trim number, and she devotes a whole chapter to Becoming Hats:

Not only does a hat put the finishing touch to a smart outfit, but it also serves as a lovely frame for the face, adding a flattering touch to the facial features. However, it is sometimes difficult to find the hat that seems exactly right for the outfit and becoming to you. But don’t buy one unless it is. With the great variety in style, size and shape there has to be one that is perfect. Keep trying. If the choice gets confusing, stop. Wait until you can analyze the situation objectively. Sometimes it is the way that you place the hat on your head that is unattractive. Shift the position until it is comfortable and flattering to wear.

Here are Ms. Ryan’s cardinal rules for hat selection, based upon principles of proportion:
“The problem of selecting a hat is also complicated by the fact that it must be considered in relation to the figure as well as the face. A hat is often most becoming to the face but gives a very distorted illusion to the figure. You know what happends when a large hat is worn by a tiny person.

It is also well to consider the profile when selecting a hat. It is important that the side view should be pleasing.

To add length to the face and figure, wear hats with brims that turn upward. Feathers or decoration with an upswept air will keep the eye moving in a vertical direction. Hats worn with a slight diagonal tilt will have a slenderizing and flattering effect.

To shorten the face and figure, wear hats with drooping brims. Sometimes hats in bright contrasting colours or with horizontally placed decoration will stop the eye, decreasing the apparent height of the figure.

Hats worn straight on the head are often difficult to wear. They produce a straight line across the forehead which shortens and broadens the face.

Care must be taken in choosing a close-fitting hat. If the crown is smaller that the widest part of the face the features will seem more prominent. If the crown is too large, a top-heavy, grotesque look is achieved. It is very important that good proportion exists between the hat, the face and the figure.

It is also important that the rules of repetition and contrast be remembered. An off-the-face hat above a tired sagging face will of course emphasize the drooping lines. A feather jutting out above a prominent nose will accentuate the feature. A pill box hat worn by a round face will increase the apparent rotundity of the face.”

What a lot to think about- no wonder the humble hat has fallen out of favour…

A shower of petals

When I sketched the original design for Hettie’s bridesmaid’s dress, I imagined the skirt as a shower of petals. Which is all very well and poetic but as I was sketching merrily away I didn’t think in too much detail about how to accomplish that petal effect!

Luckily, somewhere I remembered having seen a similar skirt (which may have been what subconsciously inspired me to draw it in the first place). A little leafing through a few books and I came across this sketch of a dress from 1921-22, by the mighty Vionnet in from Janet Arnold’s Patterns of Fashion 2 (1860-1940):

Isn’t that lovely? Has anyone tried making it? I did play around for a while with the pattern piece for the skirt of this dress (to the right) and some muslin on much smaller than life-size scale, but it didn’t really work out for me. The finished result had a lot less movement and fullness that I was expecting. The movement was all in the very edges of the petals, whereas I want the whole skirt to move. Also, I don’t really want to get involved with setting in all those triangular points at the waistline! So, I’ve decided to cheat to try to achieve a similar effect.

The first scheme was to make the skirt out of a series of semi-circles, overlapping them in a line, and gathering them along the top so there is a lot of fullness:

But the gathering would anchor the petals together so that I might as well just use one gathered piece of fabric with a scalloped edge. Back to the drawing board. How about more circular shape pieces, stitched to each other a little at the side like Vionnet’s dress and gathered across the top?

I got as far as mocking that one up out of muslin. And it didn’t look that great. Finally:

Each semi-circle has a line of running stitches across the top, then is machined part of the way to the next petal at the side. Then, each individual piece is gathered, the side edges are turned apart and the result if positioned on the sash facing. This works better.

Now, can anyone help with any tips for hemming a semi-circle made out of a crepe de chine type fabric? Are there any shortcuts?!?

Right, now to make a proper test dress to try on Hettie!

Leonardo and the fabric of the mind

 

When I lie in bed at night nowadays with my eyes shut I’m manipulating fabric in the dark, twisting it into every possible dimension. I wish I was a Leonardo because I am no fabric architect, and my imagination can only take me so far. I wish I had the mental engineering skills of the Leonardo who had invented the parachute, a design vindicated 500 years after he came up with the idea in the first place. But designs that work in a night-time slide into slumber don’t translate onto paper, shapes that worked on paper don’t drape onto a dummy, and things work on a dummy that I never would have thought would work at all.

I’ve been working on the outer layer of Hettie’s bridesmaid’s dress, or rather, the overdress, which has a working wrapover front and short cap sleeves. (I appreciate it would be quicker to find a commercial pattern that works, but no pattern I’ve come across seems quite… right.) I wanted to achieve as few seams as possible on the bodice section of this dress, but that would be a lot easier if the bodice didn’t have to extend to form the wrapover front. This was closest I could get to how to do it in my head:

 

The problem, as I’m sure you’re thinking to yourselves, was the grain of the fabric. Ideally for the bodice to hang right the grain should be running parallel to the front neck diagonal edge yet also parallel to the centre back seam. Obviously that’s not possible with no shoulder seam (although I’m sure Leonardo could have made it work) so there will have to be a side seam and a shoulder seam. There will be only one back piece as it will be cut on a fold:

That’s better. So there’s been much draping of muslin over the dummy today, tweaking, pinning, circling the result warily, leaving it, catching it at an angle out of the corner of my eye and adjusting it. And then starting all over again and trying something else. (Generally, this is not how I like to work: I like to get things done, and efficiently!)

The good thing though about working on a 3D model of someone’s measurements is that you can see whether the proportions of a garment work on the figure, whether the amount of fullness or gathering looks good or whether the length of sleeve suits.

 

 

After I’d draped the bodice (and inside sash facing), I got to work with a felt pen, marking lines to cut and numbered points to match to hold the gathers in place. Then I removed them and cut the pieces along my pen lines. As I was feeling strong, I decided to make pattern pieces of all pieces made so far, including the underdress, by drawing round the flat muslin pieces onto tracing paper, and overlaying the pieces and tracing through to get all the line lengths to true up.

Below I’m tracing the back. I realise in retrospect it would have made it easier to do this on plain paper rather than on a patterned carpet. What was I thinking?!

 

All that’s left at the muslin stage is to do the overdress skirt, and I have something in mind for that which means more mental fabric manoeuvres in the dark…

(N.B. Apparently Leonardo was a keen costume designer for the theatre, but hardly any of his designs remain to us. Wouldn’t they have been a sight for sore eyes?)

 

 

Awards

I owe a huge thank you to Mary Beth at the Stitchery, and also somewhat belatedly to Thornberry (sorry- it’s taken me a while to accumulate 10 blogs to list!) for awarding me the following badge:

Thornberry also awarded me this award:

Thank you so much to both of you! By accepting both awards, I have to award them on to 10 more blogs that are deserving worthy. And that’s tricky, as I’m sure there are a whole host of excellent blogs out there that I don’t know about, but I don’t have as much time as I’d like to surf blogs and thinking of even 10 tricky! Apparently I can nominate people who have already received this award.

For a whole host of different reasons, I nominate the following blogs:
Moxietonic

Moving Hands

Thornberry back again!

And The Stitchery back again!

Fashion Incubator

Annika’s Atelier

A Dress a Day

The Costumer’s Guide

Wee Wonderfuls

Magik Quilter

Keep up the good work- and consider yourselves tagged! :)