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!