Construction Tips and Creative Ideas

Something rather fun happened :)
I popped over to my YouTube channel to see if any messages had been left, and low and behold!!!, there was a message from Jennifer Scott, the author of the Madame Chic series of books, and the Daily Connoisseur blog. I could not believe my eyes! Someone had left her a message about the video I did last week, so she decided to check it out. She left the most gracious message. What a lovely treat for me :) If by chance you missed the video I did, you can find it HERE.  

It's no secret that I LOVE to shop at resale shops and antique stores. I guess it's the thrill of the hunt :)  

I recently visited a resale shop and found 2 wonderful pieces. Each had something rather interesting about them that I thought you too might enjoy seeing.

This skirt is a 16 gore skirt. The principles of making this skirt are exactly the same as the basic 8-gore skirt, just divide by 16 rather than 8. 
The gores are not what caught my attention...

Rather, the construction of the waistband, or at least what works as a waistband.

The gores of the skirt were sewn together, in this case, serged together. Rather than adding a typical waistband, a 1" strip of fabric that was cut on the straight of grain was serged to the top of the skirt and stitched down.

On the outside, a strip of grosgrain ribbon (typical grosgrain ribbon, not petersham ribbon) was stitched over the stitching line of the strip that had been sewn to the inside of the skirt. It's such a simple application, but I think it makes for an interesting way to finish a waistline and add a little interest.

I paid a whopping $3.00 for the skirt.

The second piece I purchased is just so much fun. This skirt is more of a design inspiration piece. Velvet and taffeta were used to make the skirt, but wonderful hand painted touches were added. 

The 2 strips of velvet ribbon were both painted and then stitched to the front of the skirt.

On the right side of the skirt, a painted panel was done on the velvet. 

The waistband was made from a piece of plaid taffeta and accented with the panel on the side. The added panel is just an accent piece as there were no pockets added.

The back has a velvet yoke sewn to the taffeta that has also been painted. Love the addition of the ring that hangs from the yoke seam.

A second piece of taffeta was used to face the hem and the center front zipper opening.

I got such a kick out of the tag. Yes, it really is quite cute :)

I cannot wait for the temps to fall a bit so I can wear this skirt. For those of you who love the warm summer weather, please forgive me ;)

This past Sunday, my husband took me to the teeny tiny town of Creston, IL to do a little antique shopping. I only found 2 items, but I thought they were both quite special.

Both pieces were painted and embroidered on silk with the original protective paper still in tact.

I initially thought of the painted skirt above and thought that it might be fun to do something similar with 1 of the pieces, but I'm vacillating. They are so very beautiful, so I may just have them framed and enjoy the art aspect of each piece. 

If you do enjoy antique shopping, or going to resale shops, keep your eyes open for pieces that might translate into a wonderful piece of art that could be worked into a garment, like the embroidered and painted pieces above. It's unique things like this that can really make our garments extra special :)  

Hope my resale shop pieces gave you a little inspiration!

A Great Circular Skirt Comparison Guide

Welcome to the weekend!
I had intended to do this post yesterday, but I spent the day working on the upcoming post for the Upline Jacket sew along. I am so very happy with how the longer coat version is turning out. Thought I would give you a little sneak peek ;) 
I cannot wait to wear this coat! As pretty as the seaming is, the coat looks even better on.

I receive some of the loveliest gifts. A week or so ago, I opened my inbox to find a message from Claire. She had made this wonderful circular skirt comparison guide using the skirts that I did for a guest post on the Sew News blog. This would be great to download and have handy for whenever you are thinking about drafting out a circular skirt and wondering about how much fullness you might like to have.

I've printed one out on card stock. Like I said, it's such a wonderful resource. The thought just occurred to me that a fabric yardage chart might be nice to add to this. I will work on it and post it soon. 

Thanks so much Claire for taking the time to do this. Not only a nice gift to me, but for all who sew!

If you would like to take a look at drafting the circular skirt, you can find the tutorial HERE. 

By the way, Claire blogs at www.sew-incidentally.com Be sure to check out her blog!

Monday Morning Inspiration/Pattern Drafting Skirts

Welcome to November! Where did October go?!! Before we know it, Christmas will be here. 
Okay, skirt drafting! This is always fun and exciting for me. 
Since we are looking at a flat, one-dimensional picture, it leaves a few questions. But, I think I finally figured it out. 
Let's take a closer look at the skirt. Look closely at the waistline and you'll see darts. For such a full skirt, it's really quite fitted through the upper part of the hips. 
When I initially looked at the skirt, I thought that it may have pleats on either side of center front.  

I was able to pull up the picture below, and on closer inspection, the fullness radiates from the darts. So, no pleats. As for fullness, there are 2 big folds at the hem of the skirt which shows where the fullness radiates from. We can also see that the front of the skirt hangs very flat, but thanks to the fact that the skirt is made out of a plaid fabric, we can see that the lower portion of the side seam hangs on the bias.   

So with all of that in mind, let's begin with a 2-dart straight skirt.  

From the darts, square 2 lines down to the hem of the skirt. The description of the skirt indicates that it is a midi length. So if you would like a longer skirt, now is the the time to add length to the bottom of your skirt. 

Cut each panel apart.
(Please forgive my drawings. I didn't realize that they were as wonky as they are, but I think you'll still be able to understand what I did.)
Determine how full you would like the bottom of your skirt to be. I would suggest adding 3" to 5" to the hem of each panel. If you would like a fuller skirt, you can add more. 
Since we want the skirt to be flat below the waist, draw an angled line out from the bottom of the dart to the hem. At the hem, the amount should be the 3" to 5". The side panel, which is the panel on the far left in the picture below, begin the angled line at the hip line and then radiate the angled line to the hem.
The grainline will remain straight in the middle of each panel.

Now for the pocket.

Once again, let's take a look at the skirt.

We see that the pocket sits away from the skirt. I can also see that the pocket is a patch pocket, so it is sewn on top of the skirt.

A closer view of the pocket.

Determine how deep you would like your pocket to be. The pocket on this skirt is quite deep, so more of a fashion statement than a usable pocket. 

Next, determine about how wide you would like your pocket to be. It should be at least a few inches wider than your hand.

The bottom of the pocket will be your determined width.

From the bottom of the pocket, angle a line out about 2" on either side. Remember, you can always cut it down. Just pin it to the skirt and make adjustments. 

Between now and next week, I will either have a muslin, or a fashion fabric skirt made up for you to see.
And then next week, we will also draft out the skirt pictured below. I think this was the second runner up in the voting. I think I will be hemming mine ;)

If you have any questions, be sure to ask. Just leave them in the comment section.
Rhonda

Monday Morning Inspiration

I hope your Monday is off to a great start!
Well, I have to say that you all surprised me. Last week's inspiration post was all about skirts, and I gave you the chance to vote on the skirt that you would most like to see drafted out. I initially had only 4 up for the vote, but it quickly became obvious that I needed to include number 5, the red skirt. Not only did I need to include it, it was the hands down winner! I think it will be a fun skirt to draft out and make. 

But so many of you really liked the other 4 skirts, so I have decided to draft them out for you as well. 

The skirt pictured below has already been drafted out by Studio Farro and you can find it HERE.

So starting next Monday, in loo of our normal Monday Morning Inspiration post, I will begin drafting out the skirts, starting with the red skirt. but,who knows, I may still try and sneak in a little inspiration  too:)

So often with the Monday Morning Inspiration posts, the pictures are great, but the question is....how do I make what I see?

I posted this coat a while back and it has been repinned so many times. Great coat!

Here's a pattern that is similar in feel. It's McCall's 7025. The inspiration coat has a notched collar and the skirt is tiered, but the McCall's pattern makes for a great jumping off pattern. Combine it with Vogue 8346 and you'll have the exact same coat.

This sleek trench would be easy to copy using....

 Simplicity 2311. Just eliminate the buttons and add a zipper.

How about making a much prettier version of the Prada coat pictured in the middle below

 with Vogue 9040

Sometimes, it takes a little more drafting knowledge to get the design that you would like, and sometimes, it just takes a little bit of looking at the patterns we have available. 

Be sure to stop by tomorrow, I had a bit of a hectic weekend and I didn't get my sleeve draft posted on Saturday, but I will tomorrow. 

Have a wonderful week!!! 

Rhonda