Roots of Fabric Obsession Found

Today I was at work, steaming lots of newly-purchased fabric to be used for Don Giovanni in the fall.  I came across a sheer black silk chiffon.  As I was steaming it, I realized that the fabric was bringing back memories of when I was a little girl, around 5 or 6.

For some reason, I loved the movie The Ten Commandments, with Charlton Heston.  LOVED IT.  The fabric sparked the memory of a couple scenes with this actress:

The princess/queen.

There is one scene where she gets presented with some beautiful red fabric.  She says (I still remember!) something like, “It shimmers like the Nile! What is it?”  and they tell her it’s called silk. There’s another scene where she is dancing around in her boudoir with various colors and lengths of silk, talking about each one and what she will use it for (the sheersheersheer white one is for her wedding night).  I think these scenes might be one of the first things that made me love fabric!  Bizarre!

I also loved the part with Jethro’s daughters dancing.  I loved how they twirled their hair!  And they threw scarves at Moses (more fabric).

Anyway, this movie isn’t always the way I like to think of Moses & the Exodus.  But you sure can’t beat the grandness of the film!  And the costumes!  I love it all!

19-teens dress

I love this one. I finished it last week.

It’s made out of cotton voile: a light, sheer cotton fabric. I flat-lined the bodice in white cotton, and lined the skirt with a kind of built-in slip. The dress has tucks at the hem, which I love. The bodice is poofy at the front, as was the style. Funny thing, these dresses were called “lingerie” dresses because they were meant to be see-through and show off one’s extremely fancy embroidered undergarments -which were still quite modest, as undergarments go.

I’m going to make another one like this, but in white, with a pink lining and sash. It’s going to have white embroidery, pintucks and inset lace all over it. It will look a lot like this dress from Tuck Everlasting. I’ve had this idea for a long time, before seeing that picture, and I just found the picture from the movie and realized I wasn’t the only one. Oh well! Mine will be simpler though; no ruffles or extra layers. People say I look like that actress. I guess I can see it. If I were skinnier (yikes!) and had perfect skin and a wider forehead and a more defined jaw, and wore more makeup. I love her hair in the picture, though. Probably not real; it’s too long. Probably extensions.

ANYway. Here is the dress.

New Skirt

I made this new skirt using a pattern from my mom (I think she might have made skirts for her mission from it) and fabric from my mother-in-law (leftover from the dress she made for my wedding). I really like it! The fabric is completely reversible embroidered sheer lavender stuff, over a plain white cotton fabric. The pattern is an 8-gore skirt which means it is nice and full at the bottom, but fitted at the hips, which makes for a slimmer look than a pattern that is gathered at the hips or waist and puffs out.

And here’s a shot of how long my hair is now

A new dress

Here is my most recently completed sewing project. It is a floral silk chiffon button-down dress inspired by a dress in the movie Big Fish. Here is a picture of the dress in the movie:

and here is my dress (you should be able to click on it to see it bigger):

It is actually a lot fuller than it looks. I should have taken some action shots: I love the way the dress flutters around my legs. Anyway, this was probably the hardest thing I’ve ever made. The chiffon was ridiculously difficult and I had to use tissue paper to stabilize it while sewing. I started this dress several months ago. It has been a nightmare. I don’t think I’ll sew with chiffon again. BUT, I am relatively happy with the dress, though the result if the difficulty is that it is far from perfect. It is a pretty dress though, with all the buttons. And the silk shimmers, too.

Here are some pictures that were on my camera. Samuel came home from a four-day camping trip and had a good start on a beard, so I took a couple pictures. It was soft stubble and we were both sad to see it go, being so close to a Real Beard and all. The picture is after his shower, so his hair is wet because it’s clean, not sweaty.

I think the side view really shows how long it was getting:

Well, tomorrow is my first wedding anniversary. All I have to say is, if this year was supposed to be the hardest, like people say, then Samuel and I must have gotten off easy, and I am so excited to be married to him for all those years to come!

off to sew

I love looking around online at what other people sew, especially dresses, and this means that I look at a lot of Evangelical/Fundamentalist Christian blogs. They make some great dresses, and power to them for wearing what they love to wear without caring about “what’s in”. But can I just say, unless you’re going for complete anti-decoration in your wardrobe (which some are, that’s fine) cotton quilt fabric is not the only fabric you can make dresses out of!!!! GAH!!

I know it’s cheap, and easy to sew with, and I guess if all your friends have dresses like that then it seems like the thing to do. But I’m just so sick of looking at these dresses from great patterns that could be so lovely, except for the fact that they are made out of garish, bright, stiff cotton quilt fabric. I’m not talking about fundamentalist communities who only choose from lists of specific pre-determinted patterns or fabric, I’m talking about the people who just think wearing modest dresses most of the time is a good idea, and make them because they’re impossible to find at the mall.

And just to throw in a Bible verse, Proverbs 31, the Virtuous Woman (or Mighty Woman, as my husband has told me it could be translated as. How cool does that sound?):

13 She seeketh wool, and flax, and worketh willingly with her hands.

22 She maketh herself coverings of tapestry; her clothing is silk and purple.

There we have wool, flax (linen) and silk listed, not to mention “purple” and “tapestry” which probably means expensive and detailed, as far as I can tell. Maybe they didn’t even have cotton, I don’t know. But I think the point is still made.

Get some linen or something, people! I would rather have one linen dress than a closetfull of ugly cotton print dresses.

Now I’m off to finish sewing my silk chiffon number…ha!

Cloak and Shirt

Here is my finished short cloak. It is from some New Look Simplicity pattern that has a plaid cloak picture on the front.

The fabric is so beautiful. I lined it with maroon flannel. mmm so cozy….And the clasp is a diamond with Celtic knot designs on it (one small hearkening to medieval costuming).

The front flapped open a bit and I’m wearing it a bit crookedly, but here it is:

And yesterday Samuel was at work all day, so I decided to make a shirt to pass the time. I used some striped fabric that I’d meant to use for pants, but it turned out that there wasn’t quite enough for that. The fabric is really nice, I am not sure what it is since I got it from my Grandma’s closet, but I think it is some kind of wool/silk or wool/cotton blend. It feels like wool, but it is really shiny and smooth. I used buttons that my mother-in-law gave me for a Christmas present (she went through her button collection and gave me an assortment of pretty buttons).

And just for fun, here is a picture of my hair in a bun.

The Smoking Jacket

I made a smoking jacket for Samuel for his birthday. (It was his idea and I ran with it). So here it is. It is probably the most difficult thing I’ve ever made, and also my first piece of menswear. The reason it was difficult is because it is a tailored garment, and has lots of easing involved and shaping and such. It has some mistakes, but only the kind that I or someone really experienced with tailoring would notice. It was fun to make, but I don’t think I will be making normal men’s jackets or anything in the future. Though they are basically the same as this, they are kind of boring to me. And difficult. This jacket was exciting because of the fabric and because it is a Smoking Jacket. It isn’t really in the traditional colors (generally maroon or bottle-green, though there are certainly exceptions) and I was originally thinking of green. But Samuel likes blue, so I kept my eyes open, and when I could not find any green fabric that I liked (he likes green but not red), I found this lovely navy stuff. So that is why it is blue and gold. I made it all without Samuel seeing any of it, even the fabric, though he did know that I was making a smoking jacket for him. Today is his birthday, so he finally saw it and tried it on. It fits very well and I think he looks quite good in it. I used the Folkwear pattern “Le Smoking Jacket”.

My mother-in-law sent me four yards of sapphire dupioni silk and someday I am going to make my own version of this dress.

Soon I will be posting about my short cloak that I made with some beautiful wool fabric I got from my parents for Christmas. It is finished except for the closures. I wanted to make a cloak that did not look like a costume, and I think I succeeded. Sure, it does not look like what you see every day, but I like it. I personally am trying to make cloaks, shawls, and other drapey garments come back in style.
For Easter I am going to try and re-create this dress that Helena Bonham-Carter wears in Big Fish. I have the floral chiffon already, and a pattern I found on ebay is coming in the mail. I am quite scared of the chiffon, it is difficult to work with and I have never used it before. But I have almost a whole semester before Easter and I can ask people at work for advice if I have problems.

Christmas vacation means time for sewing!