Sir Douglas of Britex (San Francisco Fabric Store)

I don’t think I’ve ever entered the San Francisco Sewists Mecca,  Britex, and not encountered Sir Douglas on the first floor.  This man isn't simply a salesman, he's a kindred spirit who shares his love of fabrics with nearly every customer who enters the shop. 

Despite the fact that I’m typically headed for the third floor (notions, trims and buttons), this gentleman always has a kind word for me. I’m also always struck by his gorgeous vests, which seem to be a part of his everyday costume. Vests are a special love we both share, agreeing that they give us that slight touch of formality. They also give this man a real sense of presence, helping him to appear dressed up, without the need to wear a suit jacket. 

You don’t see salesmen, or other professional men, wearing suit jackets in this area, as you once would have done. Despite the fact that Britex is in a very traditional part of San Francisco, suit jackets seem to make men feel overdressed. You'll see them outside, but once a gentleman walks inside, he sheds his jacket. Besides, when you sell fabric you need to move around. Vests allow Sir Douglas the mobility he needs along with the slightly dressy look he wants.

This particular vest is a vintage one. Don’t you love the buttons? I think it's velveteen. I’m also partial to it in combination with this striped shirt and those delicious metal buttons.

OK, you know what happened when I stopped to admire this outfit, and ask for permission to include Sir Douglas in my blog. Yup, two yards of beautiful green and blue plaid wool to make up into a vest for next years cooler season!

Hey, it was on sale!

If you're traveling to San Francisco, Britex is just off of Union Square. It's a short walk off BART (the underground). Use the Powell Street Station. When you're tired of shopping in Union Square, take a walk down Market Street towards the water (ask anyone which direction that is) to the Ferry Building. Pass through the building (I didn't say you shouldn't check out the fun boutique style shops and local artisinal products and often a farmer's market) through to the water side and soak in the beautiful views of the Bay, bridges, islands, sea gulls and the whole deal. Oh yes there are also usually street vendors just before you reach the Embarcadero - that's the last road before the water that runs perpendicular to Market- selling all kinds of fun goods from tables and booths, hand carved special pencils, inexpensive jewelry, bags, etc.

Holly's New Vest (Doll Clothes)

A California Gal Can Always Use a Cute Vest Topper

I sewed this vest for Holly the Dolly when I was prepping for my January Enchanted By Sewing Podcast. The show theme was vests, and I was reviewing the steps I described in the Technicos/Techniques section of the podcast. I really like these minimal hand-sewing vest construction method I learned from my class at the Cañada Community College, Fashion Sewing Program.

We're talking a little green sewing here. This fabric is one I saved from a dress I made myself way, way back in college. You're right that the style wasn't exactly up to date. But some prints continue their appeal, right? I didn't hold onto this material just to be environmentally correct. I simply never got over loving it. The rest of my one-time dress will either go into a vest or buttercup purse for me.

Holly is getting a lot of use out of these new-to-her threads. That's one doll who's as enchanted by sewing as I am.

Antique Threads:My Life in Costume Drama (Poldark)

Demelza Poldark, in one of her beautiful
Empire Style Day Gowns,
Shown here giving husband Ross a piece of her mind
in the BBC series "Poldark",
Inspired by the novels of Winston Graham

In college and high school I sewed a goodly number of frocks along the lines of Demelza's in the BBC television series Poldark. The high waistlines of Empire dresses spoke not only to the style of the English Regency era, they were how we imagined we would live our lives. Did you live your life as though you were part of some kind of drama when you were that age too?

Nowadays I look to Demelza's dresses more for sewing inspiration as to color, pattern and  details then as clothing I might wear for a walk in the park. As I mentioned in the Enchanted By Sewing December podcast (Ench-004: Good Night My Someone), this kind of gown still inspires my nightgown sewing. I've been mulling over creating a romantically styled spring/summer nightgown inspired by this sort of dress and the Folkwear "Beautiful Dreamer" nightgown pattern I've got tucked away.

It's the men's clothing from that era that inspire my daytime, for-public-view garment sewing. I love the buttons, lapels and fabrics of men's vests and they way they combined with what we might now call a poet shirt.

Imagine what a Buck like Demelza's husband Ross Poldark would have said if he had met a time traveller from today and learned that one day, women would wear trousers as tight as his own!

Enchanted by Sewing Podcast: Vests and Tutus (Ench-005)

This is my new
 double flannel Birdie Vest
More about fabric and stitching

Hey, have you heard the big news in the sewing world? The latest and greatest Enchanted By Sewing podcast   has hit the streets with it's fifth episode, the January Show: Vests and Tutus! 

Listen to the podcast online by clicking here, or.... do what the Cool Cats do and Drop By the iTunes store to Download

the January Show :-) (of course it's free)

Show Notes for January and previous Podcast Episodes at EnchantedBySewing.blogspot.com

Below are some web links related to 

this episode.

A Nod to Vests in History

In The Scarlet Pimpernel, one of my favorite classic romance stories, Sir Percy Blakney wore vests (He called them waistcoats and it sounded like weskits). You can download a free text or audio book version of this public domain work from Librivox.

Patterns

McCalls Vest 2260



Connie Crawford for Butterick 5473

Folkwear Tibetan Panel Coat/Vest

Tutus versus Tofu

The Nureyev Exhibit at
the De Young Museum in Golden Gate Park
Runs through mid February 2013

I sew to create my own look, so I don't want to recreate the picture on the front of the pattern envelope. As a sewist, I also don't want to be inspired, by overly affected by, other people's designs. So, it's a good thing I didn't see this video, which focuses on the Lilac Fairies costume before Larissa encountered that exact garment in my e-book novella My Heart Beats Faster in Past Times. If I had, I wouldn't have been able to get caught up imagining my own version. But now, I can just get a kick out of seeing what somebody who created the real deal came up with.

The Sleeping Beauty - Behind the Costume

RoyalOperaHous

Recreating a Tutu's Splendor | Theme and Variations

A great youtube video by the costume shop at the NYC Ballet. I first saw this at the Nureyev exhibit at the deYoung Museum in San Francisco

Wikipedia describes several different styles of tutus and explains more about how they are constructed.

Interview: Jewels - Behind the Costumes

RoyalOperaHouse·

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=msLjmbPFmT4

Uniform Sewing: The Birdie Vest

I'm very happy with my double sided flannel Birdie Vest, even though I didn't include the pseudo-welt pockets I usually make. I do miss those little front pockets. The tradeoff, of course, was that I got the project done more quickly. BTW The time spent adding decorative machine stitching for a sharper front edge didn't add much time to the project, as I wrote about previously.

The vest looks good with some black, light weight wool pants I made last winter, and a long sleeved black tee. The combination was just about right for a long walk I took today. The thermometer was in the high 40's. I had a pair of half done light weight blue denim trousers hanging up next to it as well (I'm having issues with the waistband) and it looks like that will be another good combination. Inspiration to finish my fight with the waistband!

I used McCalls 2260, a classic pattern from which, I've made maybe ten vests.
If the lining fabric looks familiar it's because I bought extra fabric for my husband's nightshirt to use for this.

Birdie Fabric Source Details .

I'll talk more about this project in my Enchanted By Sewing Podcast show for January. The theme for that episode will be vests.

Embellishment: Keeping it Simple with Decorative Stitching

My bird'y vest is flannel, lined with flannel
The decorative machine stitching adds weight that
helps the fabrics lay better, and gives the garment
a more definite edge.

There's always a sewing tradeoff between focusing on one garment, learning techniques and finishing up some of those unfinished objects (UFO's).

Not to mention artistic fever.

This month artistic fever hit big time. I imagined using all kinds of specialized embellishment techniques. Surely I was going to do all kinds of elegant work on the vest I was creating as fodder for my January podcast. How about quilting it? I thought about creating a motif of pieced flying geese blocks and turning them into diagonal pockets. Wouldn't that be darling? Of course the pocket-blocks would be machine quilted as well as the entire front and back. Then I read an article in an ancient Threads magazine about Sashiko. There's another technique I've always meant to spend time learning. I mean..... how long could it take to learn? (Yes that's a joke :-) Or, I could experiment with machine techniques for doing Shasiko. There's plenty of info on the web!

Yeah, let's get real!

Am I actually planning to get some work done this month? Sewing time is hobby time and it needs to be carefully budgeted. Besides that, I've got several projects cut out that I'd really like to finish up. I stopped in the middle of the flannel birds vest above to cutout and finish a rose pink tee I've really been enjoying wearing today. If I'd gone off focusing on major embellishment techniques there would have been no time to get a tee shirt done. And those half-done light weight denim trousers would be haunting my dreams. OK, they still are, but I have high hopes of getting the buttons done on the bird'y vest and getting on with them.

The tradeoff, of course, was to use decorative machine stitching. I love the look and the heft it adds to the edge of my vest, as well as the hem, sleeves and neckline of that rose pink tee. It doesn't even matter if others notice it. Every time I slip one of these garments on, I get pleasure from those stitches.

And it takes little more than extra thread and maybe an extra 30 minutes or so of sewing time.

Every time I slip on the sleeve of my new
rose tee, I enjoy the hefty band of
decorative machine stitching on the edges.
I used a lengthened feather stitch for this shirt.

Decorative machine stitching is an embellishment that gives me hobby time to cut down my stack of UFO's.  It's my budget sure-cure for artistic fever.

Calling All Vests!

Manufacturer is Timeless Treasures
Collection:Cabin Fever Flannel
Source: Fabric.Com

I see I'm not the only sewist who found this Bird print on a creamy background of 100% flannel appealing. There are just seven yards left at fabric.com. This fabric feels great. I have it cut out for a comfortable warm, lined fitted vest I hope to get sewn up soon. The theme for my January Enchanted By Sewing Podcast will be vests. If you have a favorite vest pattern you'd like to see featured in the January podcast, let me know by emailing me at Enchanted By Sewing AT Gmail.Com (or post a response here). I'm also hoping listeners and readers will send in photos of vests they've made and would like to see featured in the show notes.

What the Arty Romantic Wears on Black Friday

I sewed these pants
and vest for a Fashion 110
class project

My daughter just took me out for a post-holiday celebration where everybody spends a lot of money, for which we didn't actually budget. I know others do, but I always expect to do a lot of sewing, and other creative goop,  to accomplish  holiday gifts. It doesn't always work out that way.

Didn't buy any gifts today, but I did check out the fashions of the different ladies shopping at Stanford Shopping Center. (There were fellas there too, but I don't do a ton of sewing for my husbands - mostly only nightshirts and boxer shorts.) I decided to analyze what was typical shopping garb.

About 80% of the women, seemingly independent of age, were wearing jeans. Many were very fitted. The majority seemed to be straight leg jeans, though boot cut was definitely well represented. Many of the rest were wearing some form of leggings or heavy tights. More were worn with skirts than I would have expected, though a goodly number were combined with a tunic-length tee, sweater or long jacket (that hid what went under).

I was dressed in the outfit to the left, recently completed as part of my sewing projects for Fashion 110. I like this kind of clothing, because it does make me feel arty and romantic. No other women were wearing any kind of print pants. I didn't even see any print skirts or dresses. Very monotone, few colored pants (except a pair of great yellow one on a handsome young man, who was there with another handsome young man.)

I do have jeans I like, and plan to begin working on learning to sew jeans. But you'll still see me in my pretty new print corduroy pants and vest, from time to time.


It is important to stick with my own sense of style, what I like to sew and wear. Maybe I'm better off not keeping score, though. It might keep me from following my own inner enchantment.

Piece of My Heart: You may also enjoy this posting about the piecing project involved in creating the above vest. 

Vests: Another Piece of My Heart

At this point I had basted the reverse side
of a piece of brocade onto the corduroy vest front
I had just over 17" of cord for the front, leftover
from sewing pants, not enough for even one front length.

Take another little piece of 

my heart now, baby,  

Break another little bit of my heart now, darling.  

Have another little piece of my heart now, baby.

You know you got it, if it makes you feel good, Oh yes indeed.

* * *

Piece of My Heart  was first sung by Aretha Franklin's older sister, Emma 

Did you know that?

Like most people, I associate it with Janis Joplin

*    *    *

I'm just coming down off a piecing project, feeling a little bit like what Janis was singing about in this performance of  "Piece of My Heart".

Piecing always sounds so straightforward. I take two or more remnants of material, and combine them to make one. It always takes an awful lot more time to create, than I expect. My goal is to make it look arty, not like something I did because I ran short of fabric.

Well.... in truth I was short of fabric. I think I got the last three yards of this corduroy from my local Joannes. Apparently I wasn't the only sewer who found this print irresistible. Even the online Joannes  had only one yard of the fabric. OK, I admit that I put that last yard in my cart, just in case I wasn't happy with my vest. Or maybe I bought that final piece just because I love this material so much. Those long ago French textile merchants didn't name it cord  du roy - fabric of kings- for nothing!  

In fact, a shortage of goods inspires me to piece. It's a bit of time travel back to our past-times sewist ancestors. Scissors in hand, I'm spinning through the closest appropriate time portal to Depression times flour sack shirts,  late nights in the slave cabins stitching together scraps and ends from the big house, or needling together worn bits from different family members clothes - an art form that will one day be known as Sashiko,  after a hard day in the rice paddies.

Piecing lets me pay tribute to lessons learned from the folk who created more than utility garments, with very little on hand. It reminds me that clothing, even clothing with limited resources, can be  art. 

And maybe that's the most important time and place to be making art.

You know you got it, when it makes you feel good!

Here's what I had left from the corduroy
I made the decision not to cut any off below the pieced brocade band
because I thought the weight would be better if I kept as much as I had
At this point I had backed the front band with a long remnant of
silk organza (tough yet light), then stitched the corduroy to the organza-backed brocade

The back of the vest was what remained after a pair of linen pants
I made at the same time I sewed the cords.
I couldn't quite eek out enough for the linen back,
though I had more of it than I did the corduroy. But by this point
I wanted the brocade piece to wrap around from front to back anyway.

Coming Soon To This Blog!  A view of the whole vest (Yes, I finished it early this morning). I'm looking forward to doing a photo shoot of my entire Sewn With a Plan (SWAP) four garment mini-wardrobe, created for my Fashion 110 Introduction to Sewing Class at Cañada.

* I take sewing classes in the Cañada College Fashion Department, Redwood City, California