Pencil Skirts

I've been making pencil skirts with different features.  Both are high waisted because I find these comfortable - and they happen to be fashionable now.  Both are winter skirts - heavyweight and lined, both are boot and shoe friendly.

This one is made from greenish cord with 6 panels, pockets and a top bodice section.

This one is made from a wool mix fabric with an attached belt which makes the figure look super curvy.  The buckle came from a charity shop belt which I bought for 50p.  

Charity shops - fabulous source for notions which are expensive new.

This skirt used a new lining technique which can be found in issue 150 of Threads if you have it.

I'll be demonstrating in the near future,  how to make both of these skirt patterns expanding on 

THIS TUTORIAL

How to make a custom bodice block

I've been meaning to post these pages from my "Odhams Encyclopeadia of Needlecraft" for ages.  It was published sometime in 1954 so there are no copyright issues now.

I LOVE to look through it as much for the language used, as the techinques described.

Here then, is an illustrated method of making your own custom body block (sloper).   I hope to be able to go through some basic manipulation principles with you which will show you how to change the position of darts for fit and style at various points throughout the year, and also, this book includes patterns for lots of lovely garments, based on these blocks, including a bra pattern.

Making your own dress block and then understanding how it relates to all other patterns is a brilliant way to understand how clothes are designed and constructed, it will help (as it did me) no end with commercial patterns too - this is basically the mechanism by which all patterns work.

These pages are  all very self explanatory,  click on the pics to make them larger - I hope you enjoy reading them as much as I do!

Corset asymetry illustrated

I think I mentioned recently that i've been making a corset for my friend Ms E.  Its been taking a while because I discovered upon fitting her first corset toile, that she is asymmetrical!  I'm quite pleased about this because sooner or later I was going to get a client with this characteristic, and so it's nice for me to work on it with a friend first.

Her left (as you look) shoulder drops down and left hip goes up - I am not sure which causes which but the whole scenario causes the corset to be squint as you can see - it leans to the left..

This means that while the left side fits perfectly at the top under the arm, it is too tight at the bottom around the hip but on the right side, it fits beautifully all over - except at the front where both sides are too big at the front bust.  This is because I added ease to the bust to account for "squish" .. It was unnecessary.

When you put a grid on the picture you can see the problem clearly.

The orange lines are where the current seam lines are.

I should point out that when I wear this corset (we are the same size), it is perfectly straight on me.. This pattern is drafted from scratch and I know it's straight!

Here I have drawn how the corset should LOOK.

The purple lines are drawn agaist the grid, and are in the 'correct' place for the eye.  They are not symetrical  but they LOOK symmetrical to the eye.

Here are all the lines together ...

Green is the shape  i'm aiming for

Orange is where the current seam lines are

Purple is where seam lines would look right

My plan was to let the left side out where it was too tight and take the right side in where it is too loose in the hope that it might straighten out.  It worked to a point BUT it meant that the corset, still a bit squint, looked odd, in that the seams on one side were in a different position to the seams on the other side.  However, it did fit well and looked alot straighter (notwithstanding that waist discrepancy that has now appeared).

The next step was to draw in 'eye correct' seams on the left, then chop the corset up along those fake seam lines on the kooky side, and chop the right side along it's true seamlines, and use all of those separate pieces to make a pattern for a new toile.

Here are the peices all laid out - there are 14.

And the resulting pattern which is also 14 pieces because none of the pieces match.  Infact, it's quite scary to look at, but corsetry is all about maths in some ways, so I had faith that this very wonky looking pattern would work in the way I had determined.

Here you can clearly see the difference between pattern pieces.  The 'wonky' pattern pieces are laid on top of the paper pattern for the 'correct side' pieces.

It worked!! Here is the new toile where the seams more or less match.

BUT

(and there is a big but)

You can see that the corset LOOKS more symmetrical, and Ms E infact looks much more symmetrical  - but...

Houston, there is still a problem.  

And the problem is, that for this toile, I used a very thick Cotton Duck fabric - artists canvas.  I have found that it is unstable when used on it's own like this - even though I pre-shrunk it with steam.  I was very pleased with the shape of Ms E's new corset toile, but look at the baggy boobs!!  In this pic, she is wearing a bra.  The corset is designed for no bra .. when she takes her bra off, I fear that her boobage will slip into the void around her rib cage never to be seen again in that corset! 

I couldn't imagine why this bagginess had appeared, and so I measured each of my pattern peices against each of the corset pieces at 4 consecutive points - the bust line, the underbust line, the waist line and the hip line.  That's allorralorra measuring!

There was a FOUR INCH discrepancy ... FOUR INCHES!! For heavens sake!!  The pattern is completely correct, but the corset is 4 inches bigger.  After much consternating, cross measuring, head scratching and hand wringing, I braved  telling my corsetmaking friends over at Live Journal with the fear that they might laugh at me, but instead  received a couple of lovely and very heartening responses the upshot of which said:  Different fabrics act in different ways (well we all know this to be true), but it seems that Duck Canvas has a nasty habit of stretching when in use ... 

So...

It's back to the drawing board for me where I will have to cut one more 'final' toile but this time in corset coutil (as per the black one i'd been working with previously).  It's more expensive, but what cost floppy cavities in your corset?!!  For further reading on the perils of working with canvas, read this Cautionary Tale.

The V&A free dress pattern

It's been very busy here at The House of Marmalade this summer.  Too much to do, and too little time as usual, but one of the things I have done, and enjoyed immensly, is visit the Victoria and Albert Museum in London to see the Grace Kelly Wardrobe Collection.  Have you been?  Are you in London?  It finishes on 12 September, and I thoroughly recommend a veiwing or two if you can.  Unfortunately, camera's were not allowed, and so I can't give you a complete run down of the display beyond the image of my pre-tour cup of tea and Programme.

However, as the Museum have decorated their shop in a vintage style with patterns from their very famous "free couture" pattern which is downloadable from their website, I thought that this would be a good opportunity to re-post my workings on that very pattern - even though I still don't actually have a finished dress to show you.  (The V&A have plenty though all made up,  ready to go and complete with petticoat, if you don't fancy making one yourself). 

You can download the pattern  HERE.  It is adapted for modern sizes 10-14, was created especially for the V&A Golden Age of Couture Exhibition Website, and is based on the dress pictured here, a 1953 ready to wear dress by Horrockses Fashion. It has a close fitting lined bodice with waist seam and flared skirt with pockets.

Ready to wear couture styles in the 50's were relatively expensive and favoured by members of the Royal Family, 'working women' would save up to buy them for special occassions, like going away on honeymoon (perhaps this explains the ridiculously high price tag in the shop!).

I found that the pattern I printed, didn't fit, and so I re-drew it to my measurements from scratch as an excercise to explore the techniques used when it was originally designed and cut.  So here is the lowdown according to The House of Marmalade:

First step is to print out the pattern onto A4 sheets of paper, align the special corresponding marks, and secure with tape.


I then cut out each pattern peice and pinned them to  Madge the Material Girl who was adjusted to my measurments as closely as possible.

Looks good doesn't it?

Now Madge, give us a twirl!

.... Houston, we have a problem! .... can you see?

Not only is the armhole far too big, but the back sections of the pattern are a) back to front, b) too big by a long way (I mean a very very long way, not just the usual discrepancy between dress form and body) and c) the instructions don't make much sense...

So.. back to the drawing board - I find it easier to start from scratch so that I know what's what.  You will need to create your own block if you do it this way.

First thing to work out after drawing a new block, is where exactly the darts are? The front bodice is made up of only 3 sections with only 2 miniscule bust darts in the top middle section, under the bust. The rest - and there must be more to acheive the perfectly contoured shape, are hidden. I knew that there must be closed darts involved, but in order for darts to be closed, other darts must be made - and then either closed again or hidden in seams. Think of shuffling orange segments when one is missing - another always takes it's place. Where are they?


I won't bore you with the details of the very circuitous cutting and pasting (think Blue Peter) route which led me to the conclusion that what we have here, is infact, a French Dart.

A French dart combines shoulder and waist darts and I could have avoided hours of snipping and sellotaping by following three simple steps

1) Close the shoulder dart of the block forming a wide dart under the bust
2) cut the sleeve, neck and waist portions along the chosen lines of the pattern
3) close the waist dart and trace each piece with the darts closed (except the two bust darts which must be left). The darts then become integrated within the cut, and all you will see in the finished dress, are beautiful smooth pieces of fabric.

Having taken the long route round, I understand the shortcuts much better than I would have done, but to finish off, these experimental pattern peices now have to be traced back onto paper, in order to be traced again as pattern peices.  The top arm is traced as is with the dart folded out (closed).  The bust section is traced with the dart intact, and the bottom middriff section is traced while the dart is folded out (closed).  You wont see the traced closed darts in the final cut.

Next step is then to trace those peices off, add seam allowances, transfer to fabric and sew together!

The only reason I haven't sewn this myself is because as yet, I haven't been able to find some suitable fabric, however, since my recent shopping trip to London, I may well use the lovely black polyester with white flower pattern for this dress.  I think it would suit.

Wench Costume - Part II

It is done! - well, actually, it was done last week.... and here it is!

A dress, a cape, an apron, a corsetty bodice, a hat, and a scarf ...

The apron took longer than expected because I decided to hem it invisibly ... well in 1460, they wouldn't have perfectly machined top stitching and I guess in those days, your everyday wench didn't have time to sit around perfecting her stitches by hand ... so a new technique (for me) was learned from here.

Then there was the bodice .. It was just as easy to make it reversible.  I am quite pleased with the result.   It is bound with machine from one side, but slip stitched by hand the other side.

The lacing is made from the same fabric as the dress - dyed calico.  The bodice took the most amount of time.  It is very lightly boned with straight metal bones. 

The cloak is made from 100% wool.  It's very heavy but very simple.  I didn't have too much time to spend on it, so it was made - from blank paper to finish - in a day.  Again, I thought that visible stitching would make it look too tailored for a 1460 wench, so there was more handstitching.  I neatend the edges with twill tape and bias binding to avoid bulk at the hems.  However, tailored or not, this is a very posh wench cloak - the fabric comes from a  Jaeger end of roll apparently! (I know!).

 

The actress is very pleased.  It fits her like a glove!  She particularly likes the new improved hat (see the last wench post for the RSC version - I mean! They really didn't have elastic in 1460, that much I know).  Anyway .. here she is in my very messy (under reconstruction) garden - by next year, I am hoping it will look more like Mrs Silverpebble's garden... Well I can dream!

And if you happen to be in Edinburgh over the next few weeks, you can see this all in action at The Vault, from 7-30 August.  The play is a 50 minute one woman show entitled "Now is the Winter" which is described as follows:

Shakespeare dramatized the only Richard III he could at the time. Elizabeth I, whose grandfather Henry VII had defeated Richard at Bosworth, was on the throne and every contemporary account of Richard presented an ambitious, usurping and deformed fiend who murdered his own nephews, the Princes in the Tower. Many have since challenged this view, suggesting a man who, amongst other traits, inspired great loyalty. This striking new one-woman show tells the story of a devoted servant in Richard's household and uses Shakespeare's own text to take a very different look at this enigmatic historical figure.

I am quite amazed that I managed to do this job in the small amount of time given - I mean - I am quite amazed that I managed to do the job at all nevermind the small amount of time given !!  But I am pleased with the result and my confidence is bolstered by the fact that it was all perfect beyond my own expectation, and the clients were pleased enough to mention "working together again".  The experience has made me realise that we really can achieve amazing things, and the only way to do this is to continually challenge and push ourselves to do things we don't imagine that we might be able to do or perhaps cant be bothered, through lack of confidence, to try.  This job was way beyond my comfort zone, but I didn't want to let my teacher down because she thought I could do it .. and so I tried, and I did it!  More on this lesson later ... 

Costume for a Wench - part I

I know you've all been bursting to know about my costuming exploits so here is the story so far...  Are you sitting comfortably?  OK...

My pattern cutting teacher June, was contacted by a local playwright who is putting on a one woman show at the Edinburgh Fringe all through August.  The play is delivered by a serving girl in the court of Richard III (as in Shakespeare's Richard III) and she needs a costume of the period, with a few 'quirks', so the brief is, a plain red dress, with 'workaday' accessories and a bodice which is a coarse corset.  June was not available to do the job, so passed it to me! 

I was amazed, flattered, amazed, flattered and amazed again, in that order ... I know it's only a serving wench costume, but June is a designer of some skill and experience, who runs her own clothing business,  and for her to pass the work to me, an inexperienced 'dabbler', is a huge complement indeed.  And so, here is the drawing she gave me.

And here is the picture they gave her - this is 'my' actress wearing a costume from the RSC which was borrowed for a while but now has to be given back.

From this I had to draw the pattern, source the materials, do some corsetty research, meet with and measure the Actress, discuss the concept of the play with the writer, and start making with a three week deadline!! 

This picture from Spain, dated 1470-80 is one of the first pictures of the beginnings of corsets as we know them, and of the 'farthingale' which is the hooped skirt.  

The corset was needed to support the skirt,  but these early versions were just stiffened fabric with a laced front.

The play is set in the year 1460 when there was no such thing as a dart (or a corset for that matter), and servants clothes were very basic and functional.   The dress has to be plain, simple and yet comfortable for the actress to wear under scorching lights in a theatre space 4 levels underground.  The chosen fabric, we all agreed,  was linen, but alas, my local fabric shop did not have any,  and in the absence of time to research internet supplies,  I have dyed some calico with dylon machine dye in "Rosewood Red".. I think it's turned out very well! 

Next is the pattern design, and I have learned a clever new trick here.  This is made with a "dartless bodice block", which basically means that the shoulder dart is moved to the arm hole, and the waist dart is removed completely ... This makes the arm hole bigger, whilst giving the necessary 'shape' up top, and keeping everything very loose and, although dartless, the dress is still quite comfortably 'fitted' - if you see what I mean.  It looks a bit like a Maxi dress if you ask me!

Now, because the armholes are bigger, the sleeves go in very easily with hardly any easing at all.  For this dress I have used a standard size 12 block, altered to match the measurements of the actress who is a high street size 10+.

In 1460, as I mentioned, there was no such thing as a corset - although people have been using things like corsets to alter their body shape since the Minoan culture around 2500BC, the actual 'corset' didn't exist until the 16th century.  BUT!  They want a corsetty type thing (artistic licence!) for this outfit - more so than the 'original' RSC outfit pictured above, so, I have looked up pictures of serving girls from as far back as I can find, scoured my corsetry books for information, studied the pictures given to me, looked in old costuming books, searched through other patterns, and come up with this bodice design which will be stiffened and lightly boned.

Because corsets, or  stays as they were known in the 16th century were also without darts, there was no curvy shape to them as there was in the Victorian era.  All these stays did was make you look flat and triangular, and this was a fashion favoured by both men and women as you will have seen in many an episode of Blackadder.  You could say then, that stays of this period are quite masculine.  

The straight lines of this design therefore make for very easy seamage.  Whilst keeping a dart in the right place - ie: passing through the bust point at the front, and via the shoulder/waist darts at the back,  I was able to be a little more 'free' with my lines, in order to produce a stiff, straight bodice, with straight lines angled towards the centre, which will still be comfortable for the actress as there are hidden 'curves' in the right place.

The outer bodice is made from brown linen (obviously not so popular as red!), and backed with  a very very stiff calico material - actually, i think it is artists canvas - which when ironed smells like a horse in a stable.  This really puts me in mind of a medieval wench-like scenario which is a good thing!  Nothing like 'getting into the subject' for authenticity!!  

And so, this is as far as I have got with the costume.   Left to do is the apron, two hats, and a cloak, plus the finishing of the bodice - binding, eyelets and laces, and hand hemming and finishing of the dress - I can't decide on a closure.  The Writer of the play suggested velcro, but although this isn't a 're-enactment' piece, and only a 'representation' or an 'idea of authenticity' is required, I can't use velcro - it's just plain wrong!  So I am thinking hooks and eyes, which will be painstaking to sew, but worth it in the end.  

What do you think for the closure of the dress?  Have you got any better ideas???  I would love to know.

Making retro bra cups for a dress

I have been obsessing over curves still because following my last bra making experiment, my cups were decidedly flat.  Something was wrong .. it all looked ok on paper, and the calculations were correct, but instead of this:

I got this ... 

Which as you can see, is not quite my intended outcome!

The answer, I discovered, after several 'lucid dreams' - do you dream about conundrums and find the answers?  I often do.  Anyway, the answer is in dart distribution.  Doh! Why didn't I think of it before?

Dart distribution is the key.  You put bigger darts where there are bigger curves.  Simples.  Standard measurements can be applied - this I knew.  The standard boob radius (ie: from nipple to ribcage) for a standard pattern size 12, is 8cm.  Did you know that?  

And so armed with this knowledge, and my trusty pattern cutting book by Winifred Aldrich, I set to work on cutting a party dress, with a 'bra' top - I need practical applications to work with sometimes, and I also needed a party dress!  Instead of following the instructions in the book to the letter, I increased the width of the dart from bust to waist, and narrowed the side darts - so the reduction to the waist is the same but the distribution is different.  The instructions in the book don't say this, but they do dictate that you should double the shoulder dart.

This I did .. It worked ... but still a bit baggy at the top line.  I increased the shoulder dart by a further 1.5cm.   These darts then need to be closed on paper, thereby forming side darts.  These side darts create the curve when the two parts are sewn together in a straight line.  After testing a further muslim, and then applying my 'design' to final fabric cups, I ended up with this...

Which i'm pretty damned pleased with.  The top of the bra is quilted as you can see, and the bottom part is re-inforced with some sturdy sew-in interfacing.  During all my cup consternations, I'd ordered myself a new book which confirmed that what I had done, was correct - don't you love it when that happens?   I have been glued to this book for other reasons, not only does it have instructions on how to cut all styles of bra, swimwear, corsets (with cups), bustiers, basques and knickers,  it also has a whole host of other tips and tricks which are not included in my other pattern book but which apply to skirts, dresses and trousers.

.. and the whole ensemble - in creation still - looks like this:

Ignore those pink straps - they are the bra I used to pad out Madge to the correct proportions for my figure.  There will be a halter strap added to the dress,  although with the quilting on the 'bra' it could probably stand up to being topless.

I have now got to work out how to bone the dress as the fabric which is a polyester satin, is very 'slippy' - it needs support, but I don't want to add a whole corsolette into it.  Any ideas?  I have made the lining in one piece but I may have to change it.

Unfortunately, the dress wasn't ready for the party, but I have plenty of time to finish it for the next appropriate event which is August.  Check it out, Vintage at Goodwood!