Ladies Sewing Circle And Terrorist Society

I am reworking it today. I took it in and we put it over a form with a hoop and it looks a lot better there. I am moving some of the appliques and hope to get it off my plate today.

edited 15th Dec '10 9:16:38 PM by blackcat

Spiff. Dapper, even.

...if you don’t love you’re dead, and if you do, they’ll kill you for it.

I am looking forward to seeing it over a hoop, although I think it looks very contemporary.

Why hello there thread where blackcat talks to herself and sometimes Maddy about sewing stuff.

I just had a buttload of epiphanies and this is me shouting to the rooftops.

• The reason the 1" buttonholes look like shit is because of a design flaw with the buttonhole foot. All I have to do is keep pressure on the front of the foot and problem solved.

• The reason I cannot get the trim on the front lined up correctly is because the original garment had a center front closure and this garment has a lapped closure, so OF COURSE everything is going to look off center.

OK, so it was two epiphanies, pardon my exuberance.

Epiphanies are good. Design flaws in a buttonhole foot are bad.

I'm trying to remember what my grandmother taught me about darning. I'm trying to mend a very lightweight-fabric skirt that tore on the straight of the grain, but is cut on the bias. It's really bugging me that my fingers no longer remember how to fix that.

...if you don’t love you’re dead, and if you do, they’ll kill you for it.

I understand darning in principle but not in practice.

Edit to add: Wait, if its torn on the straight but bias cut wouldn't the repair be on the straight but look on the bias?

Also, once again I have set the fricking sleeves wrong. No balance points on the pattern so I just have to remember these weird ass little formulas. It's all because the shoulder seam is dropped about 2" down the back from where us 21st C types keep our shoulder seams.

edited 24th Jan '11 1:50:22 PM by blackcat

I lurk. I'm only learning how to sew, but I love—love—designing period clothing. For only those certain values of "design" that can include drawing many full outfits yet helping out with just the beginners' tasks in the shop...

The pieces pictured are looking very nice.

whoever wrote this shit needs to step on a rake in a comedic fashion

It's one of those skirts that have eight great big gussets set in just below the hipline to make them fuller than snot at the bottom— this one has almost 50 feet of hem. It's a really funky-weird arrangement. One gusset tore loose along the top edge, then the tear continued sideways into the main skirt body piece, along the straight grain.

And Spacey, the drawing is a big step. If I had to choose between making something for someone who can draw but not sew or sew but not draw, I'd take the one who can draw. Mostly because if they can't draw at least some, it's much more difficult to get an accurate idea of what they really want. You can usually point out to one who can draw but not sew why something won't work. Or demonstrate, if need be. Or just do whatever it takes to make it look right when you're finished.

edited 25th Jan '11 8:09:22 PM by Madrugada

...if you don’t love you’re dead, and if you do, they’ll kill you for it.

OH, owowowow ouch.

Ditto on the drawing thing. But, also knowing how clothes work really helps. I had a student in my costume techniques class who was super into cosplay and was trying to figure out a way to make some of the clothes that were in a manga she liked. Thing is, the person who drew the manga didn't draw in the seam lines, because they really aren't important to telling a story. And the student rejected any of the solutions presented because it wasn't how the picture looked. If you are going to do pleats at the bottom of a skirt but not at the waist line there's gonna be a seam somewhere.

edited 25th Jan '11 8:29:30 PM by blackcat

Well, that kind of thickness is a problem. We ran into that a lot at the costume shop in Mobile; people bringing in a comic book and wanting an exact duplicate of some superhero costume (and this was The Bronze Age Of Comic Books, so it was all spandex and catsuits.) Most of them got when we pointed out that no, The Green Lantern didn't have a zipper up the back of his suit, but if we didn't put one in, they were going to have to get their hips through that turtleneck collar.

Did you ever get through to them that there had to be a seam somewhere, even if the drawing didn't show it?

edited 25th Jan '11 9:28:33 PM by Madrugada

...if you don’t love you’re dead, and if you do, they’ll kill you for it.

Circular flounces should NEVER be part of a beginner's project.

on another note, i gotta take out my sewing machine soon. I miss it!!

Doodles

Flounces should never be part of a beginner-level project.

edited 25th Jan '11 9:54:29 PM by Madrugada

...if you don’t love you’re dead, and if you do, they’ll kill you for it.

No, she was frustrated by my answers, probably because they weren't what she wanted to hear. She did make a really cool mask out of nails for the found object project, though.

It depends on the beginner. Stitch in the ditch about killed me and I still have trouble with it. Flounces were easy.

^^I know right? but i did it—with much cursing and tears, that flounce is now (crookedly) attached to my apron.

Doodles

I don't follow this student's thinking. That's kind of like outlining a book you want to write, then rejecting the mechanics required to turn it into prose—how do you reach your goal of a book that way? Figuring out how designs will physically work is half the fun, and to do it shows that you're serious about wanting to see the outfit in the flesh rather than just on the page—I had a long and passionate discussion with one of the design professors about this just a while back. Sorry; that was kind of a frustrating anecdote.

Would it still be on topic to share a picture of my own, though it would just be a sketch?

whoever wrote this shit needs to step on a rake in a comedic fashion

Certainly.

...if you don’t love you’re dead, and if you do, they’ll kill you for it.

Here's a thing.◊ I do not draw human figures that way anymore, but of course, that's not the point.

Where the stuff is all held up upon the shoulders, I may not have drawn it at the time, but I know there must be a little tie or a button. If the dress cannot just be stepped into, a fine, discreet zipper up the back will do; I don't estimate that it would have to be too big, as the dress isn't exactly fitting in any place. It's gathered a bit around the hips, then where the couple of feathers are anchored (if one could get them to work that way at all) is a small, light disc.

The darker material you see would probably be translucent, way, way lighter in weight than that of the dress as so not to be awkward. It's just the piece of that that goes down and under in the front of the skirt that I'm not quite sure about as far as it translating into the 3D world. I'd try it to learn, and if I found I didn't like it, it looks to me like it can be inconspicuously removed.

whoever wrote this shit needs to step on a rake in a comedic fashion

That's eminently make-able and functionally wearable. It's really close in overall line to accurate 1920's◊ design. Also very Erte◊ in feel.

edited 28th Jan '11 7:03:12 AM by Madrugada

...if you don’t love you’re dead, and if you do, they’ll kill you for it.

I don't understand not drawing seams on clothes. I do it all the time◊.

Banned entirely for telling FE that he was being rude and not contributing to the discussion. I shall watch down from the goon heavens.

Looking back at some of your other drawings, Space, a lot of your stuff has a very Art Nouveau/Erte feeling. I mean, compare what you did with the collars and mufflers on Demetrius◊ with the way◊ he handled◊ them◊

edited 28th Jan '11 7:23:28 AM by Madrugada

...if you don’t love you’re dead, and if you do, they’ll kill you for it.

Good, because that was what I was going for, though I didn't have my reference with me when I drew this particular one.

And what I have only gets more Erte, actually (saving those pieces you linked, by the way). See the one on the left.◊ I'll admit that the wearability of that one is pretty much nonexistent.

whoever wrote this shit needs to step on a rake in a comedic fashion

All's I have to do is finish hand sewing the sleeves and put on the goddamned trim and I can get that thing out of my house. It is wadded up on the table out there and I can't make myself touch it.

I've had projects like that. I call them "sofa projects" because I work onthem for alittle while, then get frustrated and angry about them and wad them up and throw them behind the sofa.

And it's good to see you posting — I was wondering how you made it through the storm.

...if you don’t love you’re dead, and if you do, they’ll kill you for it.

Can I hang out here if I'm a lady, but I don't sew (at present)?

"All pain is a punishment, and every punishment is inflicted for love as much as for justice." — Joseph De Maistre.