Spring Racing

So we are off and racing, literally at Lissom Yarn, to Oaks Day, after which I intend to collapse and sleep for about 4 days.

Earlier this month I did a spring-coloured merino dress for a client, in a very pretty pale sea green-blue. Very nice as there is still a chill in the air, and these are so good for layering.

Next was a bridesmaids dress for a wedding next weekend; it was a simple job from a vintage pattern, which was actually really enlightening. The plethora of innovative design features in '40's dress is amazing; you just dont see designs like this anymore. Its a 1948 Vogue pattern.

The bodice was constructed in two s-shaped parts with gathering along the curves, opposite to each other (shoulder and hip). This gave a delightful asymmetry to the volume in the skirt, set off by the strong padded shoulders and high neckline.

It has a side invisible zip and I just put one button and loop at the back of the neck to stop her looking too "stitched-up". I particularly like the long back darts and how plain it is compared to the front design.

The client chose the fabric, a polyester steel grey satin, which is always a challenge, but I think it turned out nicely.

The Client is very slim and quite tall, so it looks great on her.

Next week, how to make a box-pleat leather skirt. It takes five and half sheeps.

Daylight Save-d My Life

Happily the sun is returning to my world and it really looks like winter may finally end.

Latest creations are delightfully breezy; no more tweed please!

With the Racing season approaching fast fast fast, I'm getting into the mood with printed cottons and classic lines.

This linen and printed cotton dress was ordered way back at the beginning of the year, for Derby Day. It is an adaptation of a dress I made when Lissom Yarn opened and I didn't have a lot to do.. the original skirt was a full circle.

The back of the skirt is longer than the front and the bodice is lined and bound with my old favourite, black satin bias binding.

The cotton print came from the ends bin at Tessuti, back in February. I wish I had 5 more metres!

Next is a lovely thing made for a client with fabric she supplied, a very interesting printed silk chiffon.

The client was inspired by my awesome "How to be a Fashion Designer" book from 1979 in my studio; lots of drawings of rip-offs of Yves Saint Laurent's bohemian Russian gypsy collections.

So we decided on bell sleeves and a little peplum, that she can add a thin leather belt to at home.

I'm rather proud of this little blouse, mostly because the construction is largely french seams on four layers of chiffon; quite a challenge. But it looks great inside, so it was defiantly worth it!

I also love the "pussy-bow", and the way the print worked out; the blue section only ran along one selvedge, so cutting was slow and cautious!

Again with the self - covered buttons, which were desperately fiddly with two layers of silk chiffon.

But hooray, it all worked out in the end.

Coming up this month are some outrageous race dresses and hopefully some hats...Stay posted!

Colour and movement

This week... latest projects:

On the left is a pure Modal (cellulose fibre) jersey tricot dress, double layered, with a double bias-bound hem. I added the neckline ties as a detail to break up the blocky texture of the jersey, as the client is new to "dress-wearing", and needed some distraction from the overall orange. My brief for it was "a European-summer-holiday-dress" , so it had to be travel-safe and very very comfortable... read "cool".

On the right is a copy of a skirt for the same client, a simple darted a-line skirt, made in this version from pure silk animal print (a-la-jungle fever, see last week's entry), lined as well, for comfort.

We also added a pair of comfy brown linen drawstring trousers to her travel wardrobe, with a special passport pocket hidden inside!

This last week has seen an influx of spring orders, for weddings, races, parties, amid a general call for "something flattering please!"

This last dress was one such job, needed for the 8th September, and its turned out pretty well I think..

The brief for this dress was "an elegant all-round dress, with a funky/modern edge". The Client loves Japanese fabric and styles, so I incorporated a piece she sourced from a furnishing textile wearhouse into the centre front and back panels of the princess line dress.

The main fabric is a cotton/elastane blend, from Tessuti. Its a wonderful fabric, but I bought the last 2.5m! I made the self belt with a recycled vintage buckle, and keeper, as well as the double straps. I have just discovered self-covered buttons, so I used them as details on the back straps as well.

Its not lined, but the Japanese panels are sewn into the panel lines, over a panel of the black cotton, as backing and strength. We wanted a bit of gathering/blousing in the silk panel, for contrast. Overlocking was quite sufficient as the cotton fabric is firm and forgiving.

Thats all for now, hope you like them!

Jungle Fever

So, in nerdy anticiation of the release of "Tomorrow, When the War Began" on Thrusday 2nd September, I'm feeling the "jungle guerilla" vibe; bold animal prints, green, yellow and brown and warm grey are all lovely transition colours from winter to spring, as the weather finally gets sunny!

Wool tweedster pinny in pale grey.

Made to measure for A.Chambers.

This is one amazing piece from the new collection by Amanda Assad Mounser.

Her collection uses semi-precious stones, chain, spikes and crystal to create bold, rock and roll pieces that have strong organic forms.

Assad Mounser describes her new collection on her site: The collection's aesthetic maintains a 1970's wild bohemian luxe feeling, which was typical of this lavish time of excess and indulgence. References are also drawn from editorial imagery featuring the popular 1970's model Veruschka as well as the films Cleopatra Jones and Mahogany.

I think it just radiates jungle glam!

These are the kinds of organic textures that I love right now: combining the neutrals trend with a vigorous texture like snakeskin or leopard creates some much needed diversion from the "flesh-on-flesh" look. Bold prints provide interest and are great for layering with plain colours or denim.

All these amazing prints are from Tessuti on Flinders Lane.

As a side comment: I'm over the 1950's.

Mad Men makes me angry: yes the dresses are great, but the men are chauvanists and the women are bait, and I'm so tired of people asking "can you make me something like those dresses from Mad Men?"

So jungle-chic is my solution. Although it brings to mind images of Beyonce on a sandy shore singing about being a "Survivour", I love the potential for this style to shake up the conservative-ness of current trends.

HOW CAN THEY BE WRONG?

So much animal hide, it must be right.

Cant wait for Tomorrow When the War Began!

Linen Jacket

As promised, here is the Linen-silk jacket that I've been working on for a while.

Its finally finished, and I think it's turned out to be quite interesting..

I still haven't been able to confirm the fibre content of the fabric, which is really frustrating!

Possible combinations might be silk, rayon or linen.

It crushes very easily, but also holds its shape beautifully.

Above are details of the cuff and front pleating. I decided to bind the edges of the collar to refine the overall impression of the garment. Because the fabric is so floaty, I think the binding really centres the design, and the client loves that kind of detail.

The cuff are gathered up and stitched, and close with a button and roule loop.

The front fastens with a set of 3 large hook and bar, across the front of the jacket.

All the hems are just over-locked, turned once and topstitched. The fabric is so light that anything more would really change the way the hems sit.

I added small shoulder pads to support the shoulders and tops of the sleeves.

This garment was made for K. Elkins.

Hope you all like it!

Custom dressmaking

Well today i thought I'd chart the process that goes into a made to measure dress for a client, at Lissom Yarn.

I start by talking to the client about her hopes and fears (!) about the dress and what it should be like.. if she has some ideas... or is open to interpretation.

This example job was for a client with a very clear idea of what she wanted, so there was little need to go over the design.

Her brief was a simple, elegant black stretch dress she could wear to after-5 events. Her specifications where:

Knee-length

Black stetch jersey "tube" dress, with 3/4 sleeves

A cowl on the back neckline and a gentle scoop/v-neck on the front.

She also specified bra - strap keepers on the shoulder to stop the bra and dress going south at odd occasions.

I began by taking her measurements, bust, waist, hip, arm circumference and length, and drafting a pattern.

When I got to the cowl neck, I had to do a bit of reasearch, as I couldn't remember ever drafting one or even using one from a commmercial pattern: what does a cowl look like flattened out, and how do you get that bias drape when you are cutting on the fold and trying to create a deep scoop??

My answer came in part from The Coracle, where Pat Loughery described re-using an old tee shirt by turning it into a cowl neck tank. Her pattern instructions where simple and (to me) rational. I could elaborate as much as I needed to: the secret is in pivoting the shoulder point out from the under- arm, thereby extending the back neckline as much as necessary to create the bias folds that drop down the back when you right the shoulder line to meet the front shoulder. Ingenious!

So this was my first whole toile, which also had a single sleeve to check the fit on the client. Sleeves are my... love/hate feature. They can be amazing and also so very depressing when they are wrong. The cowl wasn't deep or elegant enough for me or the client, but it was a good start for fitting purposes.

So I toile-d again,

this time creating a really wide swing on the shoulder point and got a nice deep cowl.

Then I had to consider facings or lining, or using a double layer of the jersey over the whole garment, to give it extra weight.

I opted for a front facing, with fusing, and back cowl facing without fusing, to maintain that drape and stop it looking like a hood.

So then I cut out the real garment from the black jersey, (Poly-Spandex from Clegs), and started on the proper dress.

I'm finishing the sleeves with little folded cuffs to give the sleeves some definition and form.

Its not quite finished yet, but im happy with the overall design and shape. Next I will just be finishing the hem, adding the bra keepers and have one last fitting to check all the details are right.

Recent Commissions

These are some of my more recently completed jobs of particular interest.

This Edwardian skirt (left) was bought to me by a friend who had found in on Ebay for $10. The lace on the outside was mostly intact, but the entire lining, a silk acetate I think, had disintegrated into barely connected strips of fabric. And there were also massive tears all through the georgette lining under the lace.

So we decided to try a rescue mission and see if we could salvage this beautiful garment.

I copied the skirt pattern and cut a silk georgette lining in softest pale pink, which creates most of the colour you can see in the skirt.

I then re-constructed a lining skirt, or petticoat, on the same 5-gore pattern, with all the extra volume gathered at the back to create the (small) bustle shape. The hem of the petticoat was constructed with concentric strips of bias taffeta to give fullness at the hem, and edged with a large ruffle for good measure.

I used a blue-shot pink polyester-spandex taffeta for the petticoat that gave the skirt some depth of colour under the lace and georgette. The same fabric is used for the waistband/sash, and is washable: hooray!

This cocktail dress was commissioned by a

client to wear at several black tie events,

over the coming months.

She wanted a flattering and easy-to-wear dress that she could bundle up in a suitcase of necessary. She loved the midnight blue colours, and also like the idea of velvet. She definately didn't want "another black dress".

The design challenge with this dress was to create an after-five dress that wasn't too frilly, but would enhance the client's femininity, as well as making her feel special.

Softness and drape were a special part of her requirements. I ended up using a blue polyester jersey as the "lining", over- laid with rayon velvet patterned with devore roses. It was a challenging fabric combination to use though, and I would definitely re-consider such a choice in the future, although I love the final look of the fabrics together.

Lastly is a fantastic linen/silk jacket/blouse that's in-progress at the moment.

This has been a long-running commission for a client who sews herself, but was seeking a variation in her wardrobe, and something interesting for her larger size.

She found the fabric online, and bought a whole roll.

I have to say its one of the most amazing fabrics I have ever used. It has a twill pattern, but is extremely light and as open as a linen weave. It hangs beautifully and shines in the daylight. Its kind of like what I imagine they made the Hobbit's Elven cloaks out of for Lord of the Rings. Hows that for a nerdy reference?

Anyway, I am using pleating, sewn almost flat across the from to create texture, and rolled bias strips as a collar, that will overlap across the front.

Final photos to follow!