Mostly, I restrained myself quite well in Japan and bought very few books.
There, however, was this one mook (magazine/book) I saw in the bookstore called Kimono Hime (princess) with the most amazing saturated colors, layouts, and outfits. They’re centered around a modern kooky take on the kimono.
I picked out 2 of the 12 available to take home with me. So deliciously fun to flip through.
Take a gander at other people’s photos of their mooks in image search.
I don’t think I’ll ever get around to taking pictures of myself in this top, so here it is, all done.
I still don’t like how wobbly the whole thing looks, so it’s unlikely I’ll ever wear it.
Though, I suppose the shapes of the side hem and seam curves came out nicely.
Done. I am very happy with it. The only thing I might change if there’s ever a next time: I ended up taking too much out across the back, so it’s a bit tight when I reach for things. Photos below:
Finishing details: how the piping went in, how the lining is attached to the bottom hem.
I can’t decide if the fox mask is better or if cropping my head out is better.
Also, today’s high is 86 degrees. Finished the coat just in time.
Project on burdastyle, pattern review.
Moving Dress*Up over here and setting up the right redirects took a bit longer than expected. Let’s see if I lose all my Thai and Russian visitors.
As enticement, there’s a new yoked top pattern up for momoko.
Are you sick of this project yet? I thought other sewers of B5145 might be interested in the construction details, so I took a bunch of photos before I closed it all up. Next post about this will be the last one.
Here is the nitty gritty on the shell:
On the lining:
And, what would a real project be without having to pick black thread out of black spongey wool at 3am? Things I sewed more than once:
Pockets are great. I made sure to put some seekret ones in the coat lining, passport-sized. I thought interfacing and putting it right by the empire-waist-seam would give it a bit of structure, but evidently silk charmeuse is too flimsy for that.
Sad gapey sagginess, with nothing in the pocket:
What about a snap? No go.
Turns out you need to do a loop/button combo to keep it nicely closed.
The loop is a strip cut on the bias, sewn into a tube (the SA fills it out when you turn it rightside-out).
Sewing class has totally been kicking my butt. I have also discovered that my imagination greatly exceeds my skill. So.
Lesson 1: if you are not a very good patternmaker / drafter yet, drape the damn thing.
After putting the tuck into my first flat pattern-generated muslin, I decided that I didn’t like how the colorblock angle was not so steep anymore. So I draped instead, made a new pattern, sewed a new muslin, and added short sleeves. Time sink.
Lesson 2: if you are not a very good seamstress yet, don’t use silk charmeuse. Corollary: charmeuse is the dumbest material to use for geometric designs.
It turns out that silk charmeuse is almost impossible to get looking crisp, which is problematic when that’s the whole point of your design with clean colorblocked lines. Next time, cotton (and it’s much cheaper). Also, the bias was a LOT more stretchy than the cotton muslin I was using, so now it has this ripply hem that makes the bottom of the middle triangle kick out. It looks so stupid.
I am really annoyed at how sloppy it looks. But it’s done. Pictures and construction details will come when I am less annoyed. And when the coat is done.
Here is the mess that used to be the dining room. One good thing is that I watched the entire kdrama Who Are You while working on this thing. Fun.
I got to see where the costumes for the NY Met get made / adjusted / fitted! It was pretty amazing. My friend has the most awesome job ever.
And I visited Mood, where I picked up some very nice buttons for the coat (and recognized a blogger from one of my favorite sewing blogs).
all the coat materials together
Then the last weekend there, I spied a former Project Runway contestant at brunch. Gee.
I cut out most of the coat this weekend yay! I hate cutting.
I ended up making quite a few more changes to the pattern since the muslin (raised waist to be more empire-irsh, took another few inches from the back across the princess seam and other areas, rotated shoulder forward, lengthened skirt). But I was too lazy to muslin it again, so I just checked with a pin fit on my underlining flannel. I bet you are all jealous of how awesome the pink and purple rainbows are.
It turned out pretty well I think, with only the shoulder to the front a 1/8″ – 1/4″ too much.
I’m in the middle of deciding whether to exactly duplicate the fashion fabric in underlining or not. Since it’s flannel for extra warmth, it might get too bulky. Perhaps no underlining in the hem or facings? Would the cut edges stretch / hang funny?
This was a pretty productive weekend — we also released a new Maplekey Android app for which I made all the widget graphics.
