Tag Archives: Petticoat

how to make a tulle petticoat

10/11/2019 10:46 pm \ 18 Comments \

… so, I mentioned Cassie’s engagement? and of course I’m completely thrilled to be asked to make her wedding dress!  Thrilled, maybe tempered with a little nervousness, shall we say? but still nonetheless thrilled.  I might even have been anticipating this very thing every since she was born!

Anyway, I’ve made a start… with a coupla petticoats.   Yes, petticoats, plural.  I shall now proceed to explain…

First of all; a stiff, tulle petticoat, to give plenty of volume and oomph to her bridal ensemble.

I’d read a blog post YEARS ago about making a petticoat but couldn’t find it, and so I just plowed ahead and made the above petticoat with what I could remember.  But I do hate not giving credit, so after hunting and following links for what seemed like ages I finally found it!! this post here by Sugardale.  I remember being very impressed with Sugardale’s post when I first read it, but I still somehow neglected to bookmark it or save any useful details that would enable me to find it again upon the occasion that I would need to use it.  But eventually I did find it.  And straight away realised that I had failed dismally to follow any of her instructions when making my own petticoat, so hmmm, there’s that! For example; Sugardale recommended an odd number of tiers, I made mine with an even number; Sugardale recommended working from the bottom up, I, in fact, worked from the top down.  Honestly? I don’t think these issues are a big deal, I think either, or even any way is probably going to work out just fine…

After making a muslin for Cassie’s dress – two actually – we determined the length of the skirt would be 87 cm.  I decided upon 4 tiers, with the following finished heights:  from top down; 20cm, 21cm, 22cm, 24cm… staggered heights just because I believe it looks better and more balanced to have the lower tiers wider than the upper tiers.

I did remember enough of Sugardale’s instructions to know that the tiers started at 2yds from and top and needed to double in circumference with with each tier down; and the tulle I scoped out in Spotlight had a width of 126cm (49.6inches)  So I calculated the following dimensions for my pieces:

Please note:  tier 4 only has 1 single 1cm seam allowance added to the height, since the bottom edge is the lower edge of the petticoat and doesn’t need a seam allowance.

You can see by my calculations and measurements of the tulle I bought, that one and a half cut lengths measures 189cm which I decided didn’t need trimming down.  Yes, my tiers were going to end up with a wider circumference overall than recommended, but I decided that a bit of extra volume was definitely not a bad thing.  It is in fact a very good thing!

How much tulle to buy?

So, according to my calculations; I was going to need:

(2 x 22cm) + (3 x 23cm) + (6 x 24cm) + (12 x 25cm) = 6.6m of tulle  Allowing for errors, I bought 8m of ivory tulle.

I used my rotary cutter and mat to cut the pieces as cleanly and as neatly as possible, and I cut and finished all gathering and stitching of each tier completely at a time before proceeding to the next tier, so as to not mix up the pieces.  I can tell you, by the time  you get to the bottom tier of 12 pieces, you do NOT want to get them mixed up!!

For the top tier, (circumference 189cm); I stitched it not fully closed, but leaving an opening of about 15cm from the top edge, so that Cassie can step into the petticoat.   The seam allowance either side of the split opening I simply folded down and topstitched it down on either side of the split.  I then ran a gathering stitch around the entire top edge and pulled it up to roughly fit Cassie’s waist measurement.  I cut a bias-cut strip of white cotton poplin, measured off Cassie’s waist measurement of 63cm and pinned to mark, and gathered the top tier (189cm) into this length.

After stitching each tier, I topstitched the upper seam allowance of each tier to the skirt above, approx 7mm from the stitching line.  I think this gives it a bit of strength, and lends a bit of pretty visual structure to this ethereal thing too.  Not that it’s meant to be seen, but well, you know…

Sophie checks out a weird THING

To finish the waist tie, I pressed the raw edges of the waistband strip into the centreline, then pressed the strip in half, and topstitched in place, about 2mm from the opening edge.

When putting the petticoat on, Cassie steps into the skirt, then the long ends of the waistband are pulled across from each other, wrapped around her waist and tied in a simple knot or bow.

 

It stands up by itself!

I stuck it up on the kitchen bench for a while, while I had to do something else, and I dunno, the sight of it gave me such a laugh!  Like a little tulle volcano, or something.  Mt Petticoat!!

 

Because bare legs against a scratchy tulle petticoat will probably become very uncomfortable very quickly, I also made a simple full circle petticoat to be worn underneath, using ivory cotton voile from Spotlight.


This is also 87cm in length, and for this I bought 4m and used every single bit!  I cut this length in half, and then cut the half circles for the two halves the skirt by the “fold into halves, then quarters, then eighths, then again” and cut across the lower edge to get a rough, but good enough curve; method.

The waist opening is made by cutting off the top, just 8cm from the tip.  When stitching together the two half circles of the skirt, I again made sure to leave an opening of at least 15cm so she can step into the skirt!!  and same as for the tulle petticoat, to finish the slit edges I simply pressed down the seam allowances either side of this slit and topstitched them into place.

To finish the waistband and for closure, I again made a bias cut strip of the same fabric, and stitched it to the waistline, leaving long tails either side, pressed the raw edges to the middle of the strip and stitched it closed, same as for the tulle petticoat.  By the way; I usually stitch this; right side of strip, to wrong side of skirt; this means when you fold the raw edges of the strip over you’re actually topstitching from the right side of the skirt, which of course ends up looking much neater from the right side. Which is just what you want.

For the lower edge of the fabric petticoat, I overlocked the raw edge to provide a stable and even width guide for hemming; then folded the overlocked edge under twice and topstitched it down.

The two petticoats!  I think they look so pretty together!

LATER EDIT:

I made a second, voile petticoat!  It’s exactly the same as the first cream coloured one, except it’s white; because I think I cleaned Spotlight right out of the cream, whoops!  This will be worn over the tulle petticoat and be like the lining to the dress.  So the layers Cassie will be wearing, from the inside out are:  voile petticoat, tulle petticoat, voile petticoat, DRESS!

petticoat… junction…

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the Zora Queen Rutela

26/03/2017 11:33 am \ 37 Comments \

OK, I’ve done some pretty involved and intensive projects in my time, in fact more often than not, lately! and this one definitely ticks that box too.

Quite a few months ago, Cassie mentioned that she wanted us to go to ComicCon together this year, and furthermore, she had already chosen a good costume for me to make…

source

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This is Queen Rutela, the queen and elder of the Zora; proud, elegant and graceful aquatic-people who reside in the Zora’s Domain in the Zelda universe.  If you’ve never heard of Zora, it’s ok, that’s perfectly normal because this stuff is the very height of geekiness and so far from the mainstream it’s a little embarrassing …  However! you have now!  She is a rather tragic character;  the story is as follows: Queen Rutela was the wife of the late King Zora and mother to Prince Ralis.  During the events of Twilight Princess, Shadow Beasts invade the Zora village, so Queen immediately sent her son to Hyrule Castle for his own safety and to inform Princess Zelda of what was going on, prompting the invaders to make an example of Queen Rutela by executing her in front of her people.

I liked the idea of going as Queen Rutela for several reasons, partly because she’s a mother so I felt she was age appropriate for me, also her story moved me because it is so sad, she’s so protective of her son and so motherly, it tugged at my heartstrings a bit.  But mostly, well, let’s be honest, because her attire and bearing is just so beautiful and I relished the challenge of giving a good go to making it!  Also, the Zora have always been my favourite species in the Zelda universe  🙂

ANYWAY!  here we go…

Firstly, the dress.  More accurately it’s a 3-piece ensemble, I made an ankle length petticoat/underdress, a skirt, and a long tunic top; all using white polyester stretch stuff (some leftovers, some new, variously from Spotlight, Fabulous Fabrics).  The plain, strapless, ankle-length petticoat is one I made many years ago, so long ago I’ve completely forgotten the pattern I used.  I never thought I’d say that, because I tend to remember patterns FOREVER, but not this time!  The skirt has the other “skirt-y” layers on an elastic waistband, and the tunic top is a drastically modified Nettie bodysuit, basically my go-to Tshirt pattern.  The sleeves are in two parts, a close-fitting “under” sleeve that is wrist length, and the “over”sleeve has a very high sleeve cap and a bell-shaped bottom edge that is gathered and “pouffed” into the under sleeve, then point-stitched in place to get artistic-y folding.  At the shoulder edge, the extra fabric in the sleeve caps is pulled in with three sharp darts; making a jutty-out sort of shoulder cap… that’s a technical term there, btw.

I stitched frilly “gills” to the side underbust area.

Oh! I’m getting ahead of myself… those frills were formed in the following way; I clean-cut the eyes using my rotary cutter, then holding the edge just slightly and evenly stretched out, passed it over a candle flame; which melted the edges just a little and set them in a naturally curly frill.  I took a little bit of practise to get this just right, with the right degree of frill and with minimal scorching!  Fortunately, those bits that looked a bit charred black just crumbled off when I rubbed them between my fingers.

Once I’d made the three parts of the dress, I shrouded Bessie in plastic and newspaper, dressed her, masked off the bits that I wanted to remain white, and sprayed the skirt, then the top utra-carefully and judiciously with poppy red enamel spray paint (Bunnings)

The colour is a little brighter than ideal, I really really wanted a warm, dusky coral pink, but with spray paint you’re unfortunately stuck with whatever is in the VERY limited pre-mixed range…  🙁 /

Spraying was pretty scary, my application isn’t perfect, and there is a blotch on the R shoulder that is a bit heavy and which was pretty devastating for a while, but I had no choice really but to accept what I’d done.   As it turned out I shouldn’t have worried too much because you couldn’t even see the blob once my headpiece was on!

Next, the fin/wings… I cut four-layers in light grey polyester organza, and simply stitched all layers together by skinny zig-zagging around all edges, and slip-stitched it in places to the top of the sleeves.


Next, the jewellery; and this bit was lots of fun!  It’s a long time since I’ve played about with jewellry-making and I really enjoyed it  🙂 I used Super Sculpey modelling clay, jewellery wire and gold metallic acrylic paint (Spotlight) and some really lovely turquoise glass jewels (Fabulous Fabrics), and baked my pendants in the oven before painting them, and stringing them together.  It’s hard to see the exact details of the Queen’s jewels in the short footage of her that there is, and what’s more, the details seem to vary from picture to picture, so I took a little creative license and designed my own, closely inspired by what I knew of the Zora style, and the arrangement that I could see from the footage.

The body-lace fastens at the small of my back; the necklace is supposed to sit out very wide on her shoulders, and I managed to get this look by stitching rings halfway along my shoulder, and the necklace clips onto these, wide on each shoulder.  I also made a “beaten gold” collar/choker from interfaced gold metallic jersey (Spotlight), hand stitched radiating lines over it, and stitched the last pendant to it, then stitched white vinyl “petals” (Clark Rubber) around the lower edge.  This closes by press studs at the back.

Headpiece: it’s simply a long tail in the same polyester stretch, stuffed with Hobby Fill (Spotlight). I inserted fins of fabric-covered cereal-box cardboard into the side seams, and I took the precaution of spray-painting the cardboard ivory first because the polyester is kinda see-through, and stitched it to the rim of a red swimming cap, also catching into the stitching a white plastic face-mask (Spotlight)

Now for the hair!  This took quite a bit of nutting out…. I’d stretched the bathing cap/head-tail/face mask contraption to Mr ‘Ed, my foam head, above.

For the hair I used skinny foam noodle (Clark Rubber) and stitched the top bit of the hair through all layers.  This stuff is pretty bouncy with a mind of its own, but I damn well forced that sucker to be what I wanted it to be with firm and masterful stitching to get the folded part/hair at the centre top. Take that, foam noodle!!  BOW TO MY WILL…

The blonde “coral” hair was easier and actually lots of fun, like being in kindergarten again… I snipped it into lengths, and painted the bits with various mixed shades of pale yellow, shaded with addition of lilac and metallic gold.  I wanted the hair to be in shades because we all know a flat colour just looks fake and, well, flat, any painted thing always looks so much more vibrant and real and rich when it has several different shades in it.  Going to this much effort sounds complicated and maybe even unnecessarily involved, but I whizzed through making the hair, loving every paint stroke.  I strung them on yellow thread and stitched them to the cap through all layers, and painted part of the top layer of hair in the same way.  There is 35m of noodle in this thing… I can hardly believe that myself but yes, really!

One “strand” came off while I was pulling the thing onto my head, aaaaagh NOOOOOO! which was a bit of a worry, obviously! but I had plenty of “hair” and luckily every other bit stayed put.

The final step was to spray-paint the top side of the head-tail with the same poppy-red spray paint.  Scary!! but I was super SUPER careful… On another note, this picture below gave me a laugh! the head looks hideous, the stuff of nightmares!!!  Zoe “looks” terrified but of course she wasn’t… she’s knows what’s real and what’s not.  Even on Saturday morning when I emerged from the bedroom in full costume plus makeup, all the cats just looked at me, maybe a bit quizzically! but they still knew it was me.

Oh, wait… doing the make-up was the final step, of course!  I painted white dots around her brow line, just like in my inspiration pic, and then trimmed away the mask.  Cassie suggested a strip of Hollywood tape on my nose, which helped keep the nose piece firmly in place throughout the day.  Also, with amazing luck, Priceline had a 40% off all makeup sale in the days beforehand so I got some white translucent face-powder and rather horrible bright red rouge-y stuff for the matching poppy-red circles under my eyes and lips.

   

The photo at the top is my first attempt to photoshop myself into a fake background!  pretty good, huh?!  this actually took me aaaaaaages… hehe, #photoshopnoob Well, I felt like Queen Rutela just HAD to appear in Zora’s Domain or it would be, well, you know, just like an unfinished and half-done effort, so I decided I just had to do it!

I didn’t get any photos of me actually at ComicCon in Perth unfortunately; we were just having way too much fun! plus my gloves made it impossible for me to operate my phone!  However about a million people asked to take my picture, which is not as weird as it sounds, it’s just the done thing at ComicCon when you dress up; everyone does it!  Also it was highly gratifying when people recognised my character, totally made my day!!!  Every now and then I would hear a call; “Queen Rutela!!!!!” which was really nice!

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rows of little white cottages

15/01/2017 12:52 am \ 28 Comments \

I’ve made another skirt and top set for Cassie  :

  

Patterns; the Tshirt is the Named patterns Inari tee, and the skirt is Vogue 1170.  I’ve made several of these skirts now, and quite a few are now owned by Cassie.  The only alteration I made was to lengthen it by about 5cm, and leave off the pockets.  Oh, I also made a few fitting alterations… even though I’ve made the pattern several times and I really like it; however the fit is actually not very good.  Fortunately though it’s an easy fix, taking in each of the side/back seams… my alterations to the skirt seams are pictured with my original review of the pattern here, and basically I have to make very similar alterations for Cassie

Fabrics; both from Spotlight..  I spotted this cute cotton jersey with its wonky rows of houses during Christmas shopping, and while I’d already bought her Christmas fabrics I just couldn’t resist! Cheerful, cherry red background, and those cute little white cottages with pink and teal rooves! And by the way, what’s with me and pink and teal this year??  I’ve made four things so far this year and they have all been deep blue and/or pink.  Weird!  Anyway, the print is cute and young and fun and just right for her colouring, all round just perfect … and I knew she has lots of skirts and jeans that would be perfect with it…
Then I vaguely thought maybe a navy  blue skirt would make it a nicely complete set, and she desperately needs skirts for work too … and lo and behold what should be lounging languidly about in the very next aisle but this teal blue suedette, which is a PERFECT colour match for the rooves.  BAM!  DECISION MADE.  Lugged them both to the counter without a second thought, brought them home, tossed into the washing machine.

About this time, I saw that happylat had also made a Tshirt from this very same fabric. What can I say, but great minds think alike!

I lined the waistband with some of the house fabric… not because I had run out of suedette or anything, but I just thought it was cute and I wanted to tie the two pieces together!

this is on grain, I promise!! the print is just naturally, and charmingly wonky

The suedette “looks” nice and perfectly suede-y, but it frays like billy-o.  I finished all the raw edges on the overlocker, and the lower hem with a bias cut binding cut from a scrap of purple/blue micro fibre.  tutorial for this bias finish is here

The Tshirt is made up just like the pattern, except for the neckline… I’m lazy with my Inari necklines and have pretty much finished them all off like this!  Just overlocked the raw edge, turned it under and topstitched from the right side.  Since it’s quite a wide neckline and doesn’t stretch out when you put the Tshirt on and take it off, the stitches won’t snap and this kind of finish works perfectly well.

The lower hem is finished with my twin needle.  Lisa asked about channelling with a twin needle.. all I can say is that I’ve never had channelling and what’s more I have no idea how I’ve avoided it so far either!!  Only thing I can think of: I always finish the raw edge on my overlocker, then topstitch with the twin needle, and that’s it!  Maybe the overlocked edge stabilises the fabric and that’s what stops a channel forming?  That’s the only reason I can think of anyway.  🙂
red threads on top, white in the bobbin; white overlocker thread

So! New outfit for her.  I think it makes a really cute ensemble and will get lots of wear, both together, and also separately a lot too, probably.  See, in my experience deep blue skirts are just about the most useful things a girl can have in the wardrobe… and she practically squealed when I brought out the Tshirt! so I knew that was a winner too.  Truly, she’s happy, therefore I am too  🙂

Later edit; at the time of making, she was pretty adamant that she didn’t want it lined so it would be cooler to wear in summer… however! the suedette is a little clingy! so, to give her the option, at least, I quickly ran up a simple little half-slip for her to wear underneath.  Vogue 1247 with the pieces spliced to simplify it as much as possible, navy blue, polyacetate lining fabric. .  A skinny 1cm finished width, uninterfaced waistband, a finished slit at CB and no zip, and with one small snap for closure.  Easy peasy!

  

Details:

Top, Inari tee by Named patterns, cotton jersey
Skirt; Vogue 1170, lengthened, suedette
Petticoat; Vogue 1247, pattern pieces spliced, navy blue polyacetate lining fabric
Shoes; Melissa

   

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ivory Ruby

24/11/2015 7:05 am \ 31 Comments \

Hello!
I’ve made a new slip; which looks superficially rather plain and boring, belying the hours of of care that has been lavished upon it, haha!  Bias hemlines!  aaaaugh! *insert Munchian scream here*
Pattern; the Ruby slip, designed by Sheryll of pattern scissors cloth.  I downloaded it years ago but this is the first time I’ve used it! I’ve wanted to, but actually felt a little shy of doing so since she made her blog private for quite a long time.  Anyhow, now she’s back … yay! and so I feel ok about using and linking to her pattern again.  Thank you so much for the wonderful pattern, Sherry!
Fabric; a fine and slithery ivory crepe from FabulousFabrics.  The slip is cut on the bias, so hurrah for large-scale floor tiles! I can’t say how many times I’ve found them super useful for lining up grain lines, selvedges, bias lines etc etc when laying and cutting out my pattern pieces.  And especially when you’re dealing with a slippery slithery fabric like crepe, which is so dodgy it can deviate and deform at the slightest provocation.

Sherry’s pattern is designed for a lace bodice but I cut my pieces all from the crepe, with a double layered bodice front and back.  The skinny skinny spaghetti straps are encased within the two layers on the front bodice, whereas at the back (pictured below) I hand-tacked them inside the bodice, not within the two layers, to enable easy unpicking/readjustment in the case of the straps stretching out over time.  The under stitching of the bodice lining is visible in this picture here too.

Those skinny straps, by the way; I know everyone probably has their own individual way of turning them; I tie the seam thread ends through the eye of a wool needle and let it drop/push it through through the tube, turning the tube out.  A wool needle is generally quite blunt enough to use for this purpose and unlikely to get stuck in your fabric on the way, but if you’re worried about the point being a little too sharp you can always put it through eye first.
Also; cut your straps a few centimetres longer than required, so you can trim off the ends that invariably turn out a little scrappy-looking after turning.

I sewed all seams as French seams but just overlocked the bodice-to-dress seam on the inside to finish it *blush*
Picking my battles here…!
The slip then spent a week hanging up on Bessie to let that bias drop out as much as possible. Then I spent aaaaaages measuring and measuring and re-measuring and double checking that hemline, first on both Bessie then myself to be absolutely sure it’s straight, before cutting it to length.
The length is determined by the fact that this slip is tailor-made to go under another dress I’m in the process of making right now, by the way; but I do hope to wear it with other things too, of course  🙂

In the close-up above, at the very lower edge of the picture can be seen some white stay-stitching along that hem…  if the fabric is very light and slithery like this, I generally stay-stitch a stitching guideline, situated a few millimetres outside the measured lower edge of a bias-cut garment, on the machine.  Then I trim the seam allowance outside that, it gets rolled up and I stitch along and into that machine stitching when hemming.  The benefits of this stay-stitching are threefold: it not only makes it a heckuvva lot easier to stitch a hand-rolled hem, it stabilises the fabric substantially and prevents the bias from stretching out too much while you’re stitching, the dreaded lettuce leaf edge! AND also keeps your hem on the straight and narrow as it were, keeping it even and helps avoid any little dips, ducks and dives in the final product.  Even the best hand-roller is bound to roll a little bit more, a little bit less every now and again.  Nit-picky; I know, but every little bit helps I think, and after all that careful measuring to ensure the hemline is perfectly even, it makes sense to safeguard it and keep it as straight as is humanly possible for the stitching of it too, yes?
Also as seen in the picture; I often don’t “roll” the French-seamed side seam under twice at the hem either, but turn it up just the once for its short bit of hemline… why? frequently it’s too bulky and often creates a little dip or worse, a “flip-out” of the hem at that point if I’ve tried to force it.  Probably my bad sewing, but there it is, I get better results like this!

Later edit;

Jillian asked about turning spaghetti/rouleau straps; thank you Jillian!  Fabrics like this slippery crepe are rarely a problem but in some thicker and/or stiffer fabrics, turning out a strap can be a bear.  The less fluid the fabric the less easily it can be manipulated into turning inside out into a little tube… and yes that starting bit is always the most awkward bit!
Firstly; it’s important to trim the seam allowances so as to be of a much smaller width/lesser thickness than the final tube will be.
Also, never never allow the fabric to bunch up excessively, but keep teasing the tube along, a little bit at a time, slowly but surely  🙂
Another little trick I have used successfully is to sew the end centimetre or so of the tube seam tapering inwards into a slightly skinnier tube at the very end, as pictured above left.  The skinnier end does pull into and turn inside the wider “main” tube a little easier than if it was the same circumference.  The tapered end bit can be trimmed off after the strap is turned out successfully.

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Chocolate…

17/07/2014 11:00 pm \ 48 Comments \

… mm mmmmm, it looks just exactly like Bessie has had a giant big vat of melted chocolate poured all over her, yes?
So, after I cut the pockets out of this delicious chocolate brown silk charmeuse for my suede jacket I wondered if I still had enough of it to make up what I had originally earmarked it to be.  Which was a petticoat.  So I just went ahead with it, whimsically; since I actually have no designated thing to wear it under yet and now it’s hanging all alone on its hanger in the wardrobe.  An orphan, a sad and lonely little thing, the petticoat with no dress.  And it’s such gorgeous fabric too.  Shimmery soft and delightfully whispery against the skin.  I’m going to looooove wearing it, one day.  
Maybe I’ll be totally, wickedly, gloriously self-indulgent and give it to myself for a summer nightie this year.  Maybe.  If I’m good  😉
The fabric was from Fabulous Fabrics and the pattern is Vogue 1160, which is really a dress pattern.  This is the accompanying petticoat, which is a very nice, quick and simple little pattern.  The pieces are all cut on the bias which makes for a beautiful drape.  I looked at the underbust darts on each bodice piece; two of them, both quite wide, and just had to laugh.  Not with my bust!  I eliminated some bodice width by folding the pattern piece a little between the 2 dart markings and in lieu of darts gathered excess width into the relevant area of the skirt front.  Silk charmeuse gathers just beautifully and imo the soft gathers are prettier and look much nicer than a dart.

The side seams are sewn in French seams and the shoulder straps are tiny spaghetti straps.  Turning out skinny straps is usually a pain in the neck, but not with this slippery stuff which turns out like a absolute dream.  A dream, I tell you!!  
I almost feel like making another one straight away just so I can turn out more spaghetti straps.  🙂

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my Milanese Panther dress

10/07/2014 11:30 pm \ 57 Comments \

Not the real Milanese panther of course which I understand is a very rare animal…
I bought this fabric in Milan during our trip there two years ago.  I realised after making up my caramel suede from Denmark that, well *blush* all of the fabric I bought on our Paris/Italy trip was still sitting in my stash virtually untouched.  It’s a bad habit of mine, buying precious fabrics and then finding myself completely unable to cut into them.  Fear of destroying them, you know.  Fortunately this beautiful fabric has been successfully not-destroyed ….I don’t know whether to call it velvet or fur, it’s not really like one or the other but a kind of hybrid of both.  Thicker and more directionally “brushed” than velvet, and lighter than most furs.  The pile is deep midnight black over a brilliant, almost neon, rusty-orange backing that reveals itself in the folds of the dress and in motion as sort of inner fiery glow, like the embers of a dying fire.

please excuse that a vampire appears to be wearing the dress here but instead note the interesting inner glow and the luxurious velvet-y furry pile of the fabric, as mentioned above..

The pattern is Vogue 1220; and the design is, in short, lovely.  In not-short; it achieves the trifecta of interesting and feminine and figure flattering; the neckline is pleated into a softly draped shawl collar with a slightly retro feel in its volume, the wide belt cinches the softly blowsy cocoon shape into a tiny waist, and a pegged hemline accentuates the hourglass effect further.  I wasn’t keen on that tie belt at first, especially the way it’s been tied like a big juvenile birthday-bow in the middle of the model’s tummy on the pattern envelope; but the dress does look nicer with the extra waist definition that a wide belt gives and I like it wrapped around twice and with the ties hanging down at the back like this.  

The tie belt is supposed to be unlined and simply finished with a narrow hem, meaning the wrong side of the fabric is exposed.  And the bright rusty-orange reverse of my fabric would have shown in a very distracting and very not-good way!  So I underlined the belt using a very thin, slippery black poly-crepe from Fabulous Fabrics.  

Also I like my winter-y skirts to be lined, so I improvised a lining for the skirt portion of the dress, using the same poly-crepe.  It is cut the same as the skirt parts of the pattern pieces, the pleats and darts simply folded in position and the top edge sewed right sides together to the back skirt/ back seam.  The skirt lining fronts have the raw edges turned under and are hand stitched invisibly to the dress front, and the raw edges of the lining at the side edges and lower edge are encased within the folded back front facings and the hem facing pieces.  I hemmed the skirt facings by hand, to the skirt lining.
The pocket linings are cut from the same poly-crepe; and due to my improvised lining the pockets are nicely hidden away between the layers of the skirt and lining, as seen above.  Or not seen, I guess…

The sleeve cuffs are supposed to be folded out so the wrong side of the fabric shows on the outside too; instead I sewed them in a deep inside hem, which I turned back outside on itself and hand-stitched invisibly in position to the sleeve about 0.5cm inside the edge of the cuff.

How is it to wear? Well… first outing, I wore it out to dinner and found that when seated a little more inner/upper thigh is revealed than I am comfortable with!  And also that attractive pegged hemline does make the skirt rather tight around the thighs, which, if you want, can be easily and quickly remedied by some discreet bottom-button undoing.  Leading however, to even more revealing.  Thank goodness for tablecloths and the ginormous linenware that restaurants drape across your lap!  
Anyhoo, I rapidly formed the opinion that a separate petticoat or slip is pretty much an essential accessory for this design.
So: upon getting home I dug out of my wardrobe an old black satin and lace petticoat that I made about seven? eight? even more? years ago using NewLook 6035; I’ve re-hemmed it to the requisite length and will wear this underneath.  

I’m actually super happy about this, to be honest it’s actually an absolutely brilliant turn of events … why? because I pretty much haven’t worn this black petticoat for years.  Years!  But I’ve hung onto it, thinking surely! it’ll come in handy again, someday!  And now it has!  Finally!  Woooooot!

Just to give some perspective to the issue: seated, with petticoat… see wot I mean? Essential!!

Details:
Dress; Vogue 1220, black/orange brushed velvet
Petticoat; NewLook 6035, black satin and lace, first seen here
Shoes; Zomp, from Zomp shoes









no real reason for this picture other than that the sun broke through the clouds and I just liked it  🙂
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A petticoat and an ISTJ

30/10/2012 11:00 pm \ 24 Comments \

OK, so I have posted about this new… er, thing before; and in a comment janesewandtell expressed surprise that a petticoat should have a zip … the answer of course is that even though I did describe it as a “petticoat” of course it really was only masquerading as a petticoat.  Actually it is a bonafide dress, and can very well be worn as one!
So I thought it really deserves its very own post to show what it looks like on!  Since it has a fitted bodice it does need a zip so that I can actually get it on and off.  I supposed I described it as a petticoat since it is made of a lusciously soft silk that is kinda flimsy.  Meaning it can be worn underneath a loose lightweight thing like my tunic top and function quite well as a slip.  But the fact is that as the weather warms up this is the kind of light and airy sundress I will love to pop on and wear on its own too!
So here ’tis!
And sorry to mess with your heads, but I’ve accordingly copied the petticoat/dress’s info from the original post it shared with the tunic top to here  🙂
I used Burda 8071, a terrific basic pattern I have used ten times before; for ten different dresses and petticoats.  This is the eleventh!  To see a gallery of my previous versions of this pattern, go here  🙂  The bodice is lined with ivory silk charmeuse, leftover fabric from this top.
All the seams are French seams and all other raw edges are finished with HongKong seaming, in a lightweight ice-blue cotton leftover from this shirt.
Details:
Dress/petticoat; Burda 8071, powder blue silk
Sorry, you can’t see them very well in the picture above but I am wearing these sandals; a gift from Misano. 
I loved reading about sewbusylizzy’s Myers-Briggs personality! and no one is going to be surprised to find out that I am a ISTJ; the Examiner, or the Duty Fulfiller.  The type of person who sees out to the bitter end what she has started even if she is hating it. This explains why I am dutifully continuing with the year of self-auditing my sewing habit, which I am heartily wishing I had not started… is everyone bored stiff with my meticulously accurate but excruciatingly dull accounting??  That’s OK.  I wouldn’t blame you one little bit  🙂

OK, the Organisational Odds n’ sods for October…
Cut me a little black skirt
Fabric;
a re-fashioned ball gown
Patterns;
Vogue 1170, used previously
Zip; recycled from the same dress
Hook
& eye; from stash
Total
cost: free
Stellar lingerie set
Fabric;
leftovers
Pattern;
used previously
Dye; (first time used, bought at a 30%off everything sale at Spotlight) $7.77
Bra cups; $12.95
Hook and eye closure; $2.49
Underwires; $2.49
Elastic; 2x $3.49= $6.98
Ribbon; $0.10
Total cost: $32.78
Just add water bathers
Fabric;
$28.00
Pattern;
McCalls 2772, used previously
Swimwear elastic; $4.99
Thread; had already
Total
cost: $32.99
Welcome to the Fold tunic top
Fabric;
gift from Craig
Pattern; Vogue 1309, $8.75 on special
Zip; $2.50
Thread;
had already
Total
cost: $11.25
Of the palest blue shirt and dress
Fabric, zip and thread;
gift from Cassie
Patterns;
all used previously
Buttons; gift from ElleC
Total
cost: free
Perchance to dream jammie bottoms
Fabric;
from my friend C
Pattern;
self drafted
Buttons and thread; had already
Total
cost: free
Slender Man mask
Fabric; $13.19
Zip; $0.65
Total cost: $13.84
Miscellaneous
No
miscellaneous purchases this month
Total costs for October, not including Tim’s mask:  $77.02
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Of the palest blue

21/10/2012 11:00 pm \ 44 Comments \

I still have one or two really lovely pieces of fabric given to me for pressies last Christmas, as well as from my birthday last year (blush) Beautiful fabrics that I have been too chicken to take the scissors to.  I know, ridiculous, right?!
Including a length of luscious powder-blue silk from Fabulous Fabrics, given to me by Cassie. 
This is a pure silk, but an unusual silk like none I have ever come across before.  The texture is very slightly rough and “grab-y”, almost suede-like; but somehow it still manages to be ripply and totally divinely soft against the skin.
No kidding, it’s like wearing a pale blue whisper.  
I’ve given staaaacks of thought as to what to make with it… and eveeeeentually made a decision.  Hey, I’m a Libra yo.
I really love my billowy black shirt, made last year.  It is so easy to wear and I feel so so good in it.  I feel like it is really flattering.  I love the shawl collar, the elegantly draped and gathered sleeves.  It is close to being perfect, and I wanted to make another one sorta similar, with a few modifications.

When I laid my pieces out on the fabric and realised I was going to end up with an unacceptably large piece of leftover fabric… aaagh!  More scissor-phobia and had to immediately pack it all up for a bit more thought.  And finally came up with a plan; yes, I still wanted my shirt, but I thought I might be able to squeeze a little petticoat from the leftovers… and I did!  Just!!!  And I have absolutely NO leftovers! Whooeee!
I had to cut the two back bodice pieces of the petticoat on the cross, and piece together one of the shoulder straps, but whoa!  Self high-five!  The high that comes with achieving zero waste in a project is pretty darn extra euphoric, yes?  No??
Hmmm.   
Maybe I need to get out more  😀

The nitty-gritty:
For my shirt/tunic: I used the same basic shirt pattern as for my billow-y black shirt, with some minor fitting modifications too; the bodice is based on Burdastyle 10/2010, shirt 102 (my review of this pattern is here), the shawl collar is adapted from Burda 8218, and the sleeves were partially based on those of my black blouse for which I used Burdastyle 5/2010 dress 101.  But I have to confess I didn’t use the pattern piece this time but drew a different one.  The sleeves have a shallower sleeve cap, are shorter, slightly more slim-line and not quite as bell-shaped; as the sleeves on my billow-y black shirt.

Another modification was to make it a tunic top rather than a shirt, with the front cut in one piece and with a half opening.
below; insides-ies…
The beautiful pearlescent marquise-diamond shaped buttons were a gift from the lovely ElleC, thank you ElleC!  Snipping these buttons off of their card was another little hurdle that made me hesitate for a day or two, gathering strength; but eventually I forced myself to acknowledge that my new silk tunic was deserving of the very best buttons too  🙂  Initially I sewed them on vertically but they popped open like nobodies’ business, so I re-sewed them on the horizontal which helps them stay buttoned up.
For my petticoat: I used Burda 8071, a terrific basic pattern I have used ten times before; for ten different dresses and petticoats.  This is the eleventh!  To see a gallery of my previous versions of this pattern, go here  🙂  The bodice is lined with ivory silk charmeuse, leftover fabric from this top.
All the seams in both garments are French seams and all other raw edges are finished with HongKong seaming, in a lightweight ice-blue cotton leftover from this shirt.  The one exception to this is the armscye seams in the tunic; I initially finished them with HongKong seaming but decided they were too bulky and made a bit of a hideously unacceptable lumpy-bump on my shoulder  :((  so I unpicked it all, trimmed the heck out of them and finished them on the overlocker instead.  
Sometimes, one’s quest for perfect inner appearances must be ditched in favour of perfect outer appearances after all… hehe.
Details:
Tunic; my own design, adapted from several patterns, powder blue silk
Petticoat; Burda 8071, powder blue silk and lined with ivory silk charmeuse
Belt; of emu leather, from luxe boutique (sadly no longer open)
Sandals; Pedro Miralles, from Soletta shoes
Just some housekeeping: I have no idea why, but I have been unable to comment on WordPress blogs lately.  I type in a comment but it totally disappears… what is with that? So, to my WordPress blogging friends, sorry!  I am reading, and trying to comment  🙁
LATER EDIT;
this blouse has received a dye bath and now looks like this:

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