Waistlines: A Little Old-Time Revival (Greek Influence on Fashion)

Give me that old-time revival style!

Greek Revival that is....

As all of us time travelin' sewists know.... women just never seem to get enough of that high-waisted Greek look.

The ladies of ancient Grecian times are well known for draping their Doric chitons so that the weight of the primary fabric folds hung from just below the bust, though you'll find other waistline draping effects on Greek artifacts as well (including the no-waistline look ). Their counterparts in other ancient lands may well have draped their frocks in similar styles, but when it comes to these Mediterranean islands we have access to the detritus of their civilization to paw through, and other places - not so much. Relicts of Greek culture have made their way into modern museums, and that gives us an opportunity to window shop through these styles, and pickup a few pointers when it comes to draping and styling fluid high-waisted dresses and tunics.

An appreciation for all things classically Greek inspired people of many eras to try out democracy, create public buildings with columns, and get down with getting philosophical. It has also led ladies of many succeeding historical periods to pull up their waistlines and let their fabric of their dresses flow smoothly and fluidly from just beneath a fitted bosom. What's not to like about a waistline that avoids your waist? 

This classical raised waist image from ancient times, meant that Renaissance ladies like Madonna Lucrezia Borgia, Intimates of Marie Antoinette at  Le Petit Trianon, Napoleon's Josephine, Jane Austen's heroines, Vionnet's put-away-those-corsets Parisian beauties, and Betsey Johnson's 1970's Alley Cat pattern sewists, could shed their corsets and girdles, breathe a little easier, and get comfortable when they pulled a high-waisted frock out of the wardrobe.

We're still sewing 'em today!

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Feeling Like A Little Greek Inspiration?

Hot Pattern's Trudy, has designed a great top and dress pattern, the Metropolitan Verano Dress that is strongly reminiscent of an updated Greek chiton.


 

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  Resources

Waistlines: The No-Waistline Look http://meencantacoser.blogspot.com/2013/11/waistlines-designing-without-no.html

I love using layers in Photoshop! Usually I create my illustrations from my own art work, but it's also fun to incorporate other people's creations as well. In my Greek Revival illustration above I borrowed and incorporated the following free downloads...

http://openclipart.org/detail/181828/rhodes-cerf---rhodes-deer-by-waielbi-181828

http://openclipart.org/detail/22619/chiton-(clothing)-by-warszawianka


heborgias.wikifoundry.com/page/Italy+-+Famous+Renaissance+Women

Jeans Technicos/Techniques - Further Disasters in Flat-Felled Seaming!

Jeans techniques are challenging my sewing skills, however I've also get just a few other...  sewing projects going. I refit B5526, got another shirt partially cut out of it, and began working on fitting a new (to me) tee shirt, the Hot Patterns Weekend Sunshine Top .

It's multi-tasking like this, that keeps me enchanted by sewing!
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Oh dear, my journey into the land of the flat-felled is not following a smooth - or straight - road
Woof! Look at that topstitching line!!!! You can practically hear the sound effects 
as the needle moves back and forth, right?
Believe it or not, I was focusing
on the toe of my presser foot lining up as I sewed,
but it looks like I need to find better visual  guidelines.

This light-weight denim moves around
Did I actually trim one edge too close?

A few posts back I shared my challenges when it came to sample sewing flat felled seams in a light/medium weight denim . I gave it another shot tonight, this time using both a heavy levi-type weight (the pale/washed out blue sample above) and some of the light/medium weight (that indigo blue with the scrolly rose design over on the right). I thought if I skipped the glue stick I used last time, to hold the tucked under seam in place, I might avoid the needle-jamming problem I had before. I also thought that if I simply sewed a wider gap between the original seam and the topstitched one, I could get a nice straight seam line and avoid the problem of the raw edge not being caught in the top stitching and peeking out.

Hummmm...

1) It does appear that the glue stick was the culprit in the jamming. I have certainly used glue sticks successfully in the past for a variety of projects, as have many other sewists, but perhaps when working with heavy weight fabric, or maybe it's the heavy denim needle, that may not be a good idea. So, one problem solved, it didn't jam.

2) I'm not, however, making progress on the straight-line front. My topstiching was, if anything, even more crooked!

3) In addition I continued to have problems with a raw edge of fabric poking out from under my flat felled topstitching. I can't seem to get the longer edge to fit in underneath the trimmed seam. Am I trimming it too close to the seam? I wonder if that is causing this problem.

Next....

a) I'm going to focus on this flat-felled seam tutorial from Oliver + S, and see if I get any new ideas about what is proving to be surprisingly challenging for me.
b) I wonder if I should go for a wider seam allowance. I've been sewing a 5/8 " seam, typical for wovens, and trimming one seam down to about 1/8". Should I cut a 1" allowance and then trim the one seam down to.... maybe something closer to 1/4"? I might try the 1" seam on two different samples - one with a 1/4" trimmed seam and the other with the 1/8 - or at least very closely trimmed seam edge.

But first I'm going to read more about what others have to say about this type of seaming. In addition to the Oliver + S article, I'm going to look through the Pattern Review article "Make your own Jeans, You Can Do It"  and also in my all-purpose Readers Digest sewing book.

Can you imagine how much more enchanted I'm going to be with sewing, on the day when I've resolved these challenges?

Tee Time: Spidahhhh (Web).... Rose, I'm home again Rose!

Spidahhhh Web Rose, I'm home again Rose

Without a Sweetheart to My Name

Spidahhh Web Rose, how everyone knooooows,

 That I'm am

Hoping you're the same!

Sung to the tune of "Lyda Rose", of Music Man fame

  You know that song, don't you? 

Here's a great rendition on youTube 

I'm having a good time this evening, catching up on a few sewing journal photographs. I've been pretty busy sewing, and working on the October show for the Enchanted By Sewing Podcast * (not to mention school, work and domestic activities) that I'd gotten behind on displaying some of the pretty things I've created recently. 

It's a lot of fun getting a chance to show off. Personally, I never get tired of that.

I made this boxy tee from 100% cotton interlock knit. We all used the same Qwik Sew pattern, for our first project, in my Fashion 110 sewing at Cañada College. (Note the darts are not original to the pattern, but I wanted a little more shape in that zone.)  I usually sew more fitted tees and I wasn't in love with this tee, until I added the spider-web rose I learned about by watching a Hot Patterns youTube Video. Golly, they have a ton of great technique videos. Thanks Trudy and Jeremy!

It was lovely following through on one of my September goals (I'd mentioned wanting to try this embellishment out in the September Edition of the Enchanted By Sewing podcast), and even lovelier to find that the rose worked great. I've worn this tee quite a number of times since I finished it a few weeks back. 

Of course I've made rather a point of telling people about the embellishment whenever I get a chance. If I don't toot my own horn, who will?

Techniques: I followed Trudy's idea of the radius of 5 large stitches, weaving a rough strand of knit over and under around and around in a circle. However, though Trudy's roses seemed to work fine done loosely, and with (I believe she says) the big wheel of stitches left in place, I needed to do it a little differently. I think that is because I did a tighter, smaller rose. So, I hand stitched the rose (and it's tail - isn't that a darling addition?) in place - everywhere. 

Fabric Stability: Trudy did her spider web roses on the Hot Patterns Cabana tee shirt. I noticed that looked like it provided a kind of stable background for her roses. I got my rose-bearing-oomph from my deep hem. I cut it 3 inches deep (the original pattern has a 1 inch hem), and did 3 rows of stitching for a channel affect as well as some good body and stability.

* You can find this show by searching in the iTunes store using the phrase Enchanted By Sewing. I expect to finish up, and publish the second, October, episode, later this week. The show is monthly and garment themed. The September show was titled Tee Time. October will be Romancing the Dress.

When Zippers Fly - September Sewing Basket

My September Sewing Basket is Singing Out To Me
Haloooooo, we're still full over here!

I'm still working away on completing the items in my September sewing basket.

Finally getting on with those sage-y green shorts. Yes, we can still hope to wear shorts here in the San Francisco Bay Area for another month or more. What is it about getting those fly front zipper techniques down? I'm going to review Trudy's fly-front zipper tutorial on youtube. Thanks again to Hot Patterns.

Why do they call it a "fly" on the front of the zipper?

From past experience, I don't think this zip will be flying off my machine that all quickly.

Buena suerte para mí!

1001 Nights: Scheherazade's Peacock Purse

Scherazade's Purse Sewn by L.R. Shimer
Hot Patterns Vintage HotPatterns Hangbag Heaven Nairobi Handbag
Iman Home Fabrics, Punjab Peacock Radicchio

Do you laugh when people ask you... "But where do you get your ideas?" Ideas are not our problem, are they? I know that my head is tumbling full of them, and I bet yours is too. It's completing the projects inspired by these thousand and one ideas that's the challenge!

Our sewing stories are like the thousand and one stories that Scherazade told her husband. There's always another one waiting to be imagined. Still, I thought it would be fun, perhaps for the sake of the people who don't think the way many of us do*, to think about where the inspiration for each of my sewing stories comes from.

Do you recall that it was Scherazade's own idea to be married to the shahryar who was infamous for having already married and beheaded a 1001 wives? To my mind the man sounds like a power-mad brute, but Scherazade saw him as a challenge. She believed that he was just one crazy, mixed-up dude who, having been betrayed by one woman, had gone mad by love. Her plan was to keep him entertained by telling him story after story. Of course she told him that the stories were for her little sister, Dinazade. As the light of morning broke after a dramatic story filled night, Scherazade always managed to leave her most recent story hanging. Her version of story-telling therapy worked. After a thousand and one stories, the shahryar was cured. The couple went on to a happy life together.

Who'd a thunk it? Well, I guess marriage is always a chancy business.

I can fit four dvd boxes to go back to the library in my bag. I like to envision Scherazade, perhaps with help from Dinazade, packing her toothbrush and nightie in a bag much like mine, when she went off to take her chances on marriage. When I walk off to the library, or downtown to buy a box of bandaids, with my Scherazade-inspired purse hanging over my shoulder, the beautiful Rimsky-Korsakov symphony runs through my head. You can listen to it here.

Sewing Details:

I finished creating Scheherazade's peacock purse last week. Bare Bones: It's made using a "Vintage HotPatterns Hangbag Heaven Nairobi Handbag" pattern. The material is designed by Iman Home Fabrics and is called "Punjab Peacock Radicchio". ( Updated Note - That fabric doesn't seem to be available anymore, but I found a very pretty print that is, the NY Fashion Center one shown above) I'm not sure if I managed to cut it out of the half a yard the pattern suggests, because I had bought two half yard pieces. I sewed a simple tote for my daughter out of some of it. Also I wanted to have a lot of peacock eyes nicely displayed so I'm sure I used more fabric than I normally would, laying out the pattern pieces just so.

I also quilted, in the ditch, along the seam lines, using scraps of some type of cotton heirloom quilt type batting that I happened to have on time. It gives it a nice shape and heft. The lining is a jade green poly/satin I recycled from an old bridesmaid dress I found for free. Instead of the pocket included in the pattern, I cut off a small poofy sleeve from the dress and stitched it down inside. The sleeve had elastic at top and bottom. It works great as an inner pocket.

*Hey some of us are network/web thinkers and others are more focused and linear, right?