Category: Inspirations

Fashion week has just ended and I have been looking at the photos of the shows and feeling and odd combination of excitement and disconnect.   I am terribly excited about several things I have seen for next fall, but next  fall is still several months away and I have never been particularly good at sewing a season ahead, much less two seasons.

Secondly I am having trouble reconciling the things I see and add to my inspiration file.  The spring collections are long forgotten, and absent from my computer due to the October crashes except for a couple of Chado Ralph Rucci items I printed out for my photo collage.  My thoughts of spring mostly revolve around the couture collections, which did not inspire in terms of practical wardrobe items but did inspire pure dream fantasy clothing lust — the kind of clothes I would wear in my dreams if I were a princess.

So how do I reconcile the over-the-top fantasy images of the Dior Spring Couture show, which I loved, with its combination of Madame Butterfly and My Fair Lady fantasy extravaganzas: (all photos courtesy of www.style.com with the exception of the last one which is www.mbfashionweek.com)

With the almost anti-fashion simplicity of the Marc Jacobs fall collection, which I adored instantly:

Or with some of the other fabulous fall finds, like the fabulous collection Isabel Toledo did for Anne Klein

or a beautiful collection from Bill Blass:

 

There are many more from a collection of designers.

Next fall is months away, and I went through a long period where I wasn’t interested in clothes, much less sewing (there the truth is finally out) but that is not the case now.  I have enough pictures saved on my computer to clothe the entire female population of Hyde Park.  And I want to sew them all, even though the pattern companies won’t have anything out until the fall of 2008.  But the nice thing about this year is that a lot of the silhouette’s are basic and classic, so I have a starting point.

But do I sew spring? or for fall and winter?  And if so for which fall and winter?  I am thinking of a few knit tops and skirts to throw in some quick simple things.  I also am thinking about coats again (you thought I had forgotten) as well as other projects. 

I’m not sure I have a plan, but I do have inpsiration.  Now just to put on the blinders and focus.

Ruanas, shawls, and garments based on rectangles continue to fascinate me.  Usually however I am disappointed in them when I actually see them on the body.  Any given individual example may work on a particular person, but draping rectangular garments over rounded forms is difficult unless the exactly correct proportions are achieved.

Yesterday this garment arrived for my consideration, forwarded by a personal shopper at Neiman Marcus.  It is surprising because it is not the kind of thing I have ever purchased from this store.

It looks rather nice on Matilda doesn’t it.  She has the advantage of not having arms. The actual garment was much too narrow through the shoulders for me. 

The jacket is by one of the Issey Miyake Lines, HaaT, and it basically consists of a large rectangle with sleeves, something like this sketch:

You can see the construction from the inside of the garment here:

But what is really interesting about this garment is not its shape.  It is hard to keep on the body, and I think it would work better as a modified rectangle.  What is really interesting is the fabric.  The body of the jacket is made up of a bunch of small rectangles of fabric that have been pieced together at the corners.  The fabric seems to have been fulled slightly, but not completely felted;  this probably does help with ravelling, but this is not a jacket for heavy duty wear. 

After the individual pieces were all sewn togther long rows of machine stitching were made free form to create the stripes on the fabric, and a few appliques were added.

Pockets were placed on the inside of the jacket:

I am really intrigued by this cutting up or deconstructiong of fabric and then reconstructing in a similar but different form.  This could be fun to play with someday.  I see many possibilities, not practical maybe, but fun.

You know, I never finished my notes on the Akris spring
collection. You might not care, but this
blog has become my journal of what I am thinking and working on, where I keep
notes to go with the assorted odd photos I take, and although it may seem odd
to keep my sewing journal here, it is better for me than the notebooks and bits
of paper I have used in the past. Generally, I have never managed to keep a sewing inspiration notebook,
except for the collage of pictures I keep each year. Those are useful. But if I want notes on something specific I
want to do, I put it in whatever notebook I have at hand, or on my palm, or on
a little scribbled up piece of paper. Then it gets thrown in a box, if I am lucky, or lost otherwise. I never managed to keep a serious journal
because I never have it on hand when I want it, and then I somehow don’t manage
to transcribe my scribbled notes to the journal when I get home. 

The computer is usually accessible. The internet is accessible from anywhere,
hence my new set of notes to myself.

And on to Akris, or at least what I remember because six
weeks after I started this I am already starting to forget.

The second jacket I wanted to discuss has basically the same
shape as the one showcased on February 21 but the fabric is different:

 

This fabric is a smooth woven, fairly substantial, with some
drape. The cut is much the same as the
other jacket. Since February I have
looked at Neue Mode patterns as well, and I think the basic shape of this
jacket is closet to the original although any of the patterns mentioned would
work.

This jacket has interfacing at all the
seams. Narrow, approximately 1” strips
are fused at the stitching line and the seams are sewn down the middle of the
interfacing. The edges are serged or
overcast, folded under and topstitched.

 

I am sure the hems are interfaced as well. The only other interfacing is sew-in at the
shoulders. You can see it through the
lining, along with the shoulder pads, in the photo below. Notice the lining, a light hymo, is simply
pinked at the edge. I remain not particularly fond of the half lining.

My final photo is of the trim detail at the
collars. This is simply a narrow trim
that is wrapped around the edge, where a slight ridge is formed by the
thickness of the seam allowances inside. The trim is functional in that it hides that detail and highly
decorative. The trim is truly wrapped,
it is on both sides of the collar, and sewn in place. I think this little thing is what makes the
jacket. In fact it is the way the trim
is used and the interfaced seams that make this jacket seem interesting.

Of course there is more:

The next jacket is made out of a beefy silk matka in a
deep rich hot pink.

The photo doesn’t really do it justice. This jacket is longer, low hip length, and it
is a pretty standard fitted princess seam jacket. The curve of the bottom is not something I
think I am fond of, but then, that is why I like to make my own jackets. The matka is fused in front and the front of the jacket is
lined. The back is unlined.

The seaming detail is interesting. It is not what I expected it to be.

It’s not done how you, or I at least, might have thought:

 

Although you really can’t see the detail here, the edges are
serged. One seam allowance is sewn down,
giving the jacket that faux-felled seam look. Very easy.

I also really like the collar:

 

As you see, these two jackets really aren’t all that
complicated. It would not be that
difficult to make something similar. The
seam details ARE interesting. They
remind me that I often tend to try to make things far more complicated than
they need to be.

I was lucky enough to get the opportunity to examine a few
Akris jackets in detail and take photos as well.

First is a really lovely jacket from the Akris Premiere
collection at Bergdorf Goodman. This
jacket retails for $2990.00. The fabric
is an interesting brown and taupe, two-tone woven fabric of linen, viscose, and
polyurethane. The fabric is pretty firm
and stable with a heavy drape, not stiff, but substantial-feeling. The front of the jacket and the sleeves are
lined with bemberg rayon, and there is a half-lining in the back. I am not sure
what kind of interfacing is used in the front of the jacket, there is none in
back. The collars are probably
fused. The fabric has little holes that
allow light through where the gray/taupe thread is woven through the fabric and
I see the lining clearly through the fabric and nothing else. I am confident that the fronts are not
fused. There may be a small piece of
hair canvas between the jacket and the shoulder pads.

 

The jacket is basically a princess cut. The front princess seam extends down from the
armscye and has a dart at the bust. I have not actually found a lot of patterns
for this style, Simplicity, Marfy, and Butterick each have one pattern in this
style, but the darts are angled up from below the bustline.

 

This Burda pattern, 8279, seems to be the closest I have found
in the current catalogs.. The basic
shape is similar. The dart looks pretty similar in the sketch (see jacket
details below). One would have to modify
the jacket to close at the center front line as there is no overlap and that
might solve the problem of the collar opening being a little too low on this
jacket. 

Notice the edges on the front, collar, and pockets. This is the same fabric, cut in bias strips,
and wrapped over the edges. The bias
strips are attached to the jacket fabric with a kind of flat-lock or cover
stitch, I’m not really sure which because it is the same on both sides;
possibly it was sewn twice, once from each side, although there may well be
some stitch out there that gives this effect. I do not think it was serged separately and then sewn down, it looks
like one stitch, finishing the edges of the binding and attaching it to the fabric
at once.

Notice the finish on the in-seam pocket as well:

The jacket is closed with two large hooks and eyes, sewn on
the inside of the jacket. They are not
inserted in a seam as there is no seam here. Both hooks are just below the bust
dart, about 2 inches apart

Notice that the dart is horizontal, not angled
up, and how carefully it is placed along the horizontal line of the fabric and
how well the fabric is matched at the seams below the bust dart. It is these
little details that make the jacket special.

The edges are all finished with a simple Hong Kong Finish
where the jacket is not lined.

The hem is interfaced.  My only problem with this jacket is the way it is hemmed.  See how big the stitches are?  I have an uncanny ability to rip hems out of garments while I am wearing them and this hem would not survive. 

Yesterday was one of those days were everything went wrong and I
got to be everyone’s errand girl. I had
hoped for some sewing time, thought I could whip up a sweater set, which
actually looks different every time I think about it, so who knows how it will
turn out, but that is another story for another day, a day of actual sewing.

Yesterday was a day of virtual sewing.

The day might have gone better if I had not spent so long in
the morning perusing the Paris Couture Collections at Style.com.    I really don’t regret that, the couture shows are my favorite. I could post tons of photos, but Liana  has
already posted all the photos that I thought best and her comments and
selections are much more astute and observant than mine. Truthfully, I love reading her take on the
collections as much as I love seeing the pictures themselves. If you are interested go have a look. 

When I got home, about 7:30, after being in the gym at the height of the evening post-work
rush, I was tired and crotchety from running around all day, and not in my most
productive frame of mind. I collapsed in
my favorite chair and allowed myself to think back over the collection pictures
and start imagining what I would sew if I could sew everything I wanted from
these collections. It might have been
more productive to go right up to my sewing room and get to work, but in some
ways the dream time was more refreshing. About the time I was winding down my mental sewing and preparing for the
actual thing, DH had arrived, dinner had to be made, and my time was once again
wrenched out of my control.  I
increasingly admire those who work all day, come home to feed and tend their
families and still manage to sew on a daily basis. 

First I was thinking about Armani. Now there were several nice things in that
show, and I have several ideas, but primarily I was thinking of this suit:

Now of course Liana posted this on her blog and pointed out the directionality of the stripes.  I too had to lighten the photo considerably to get a sense of what was going on here, something I might have missed if she had not pointed it out.  Once I looked however, I was inspired.

Notice that the the stripes on the body do not go all in the same direction.  The lower portion of the jacket is cut on the cross-grain so that the stripes encirlcle the body and emphasize the waist.  This is contrasted with the fabric at the bodice or upper part of the jacket, which is cut on the bias.  Notice how the stripes seem to radiate out from the top closure at the base of the collar, and how the stripes curve around the bust, emphasizing the curve.  This contrast would provide a slimming feature even for those were no longer quite slender through the waistline. 

I don’t know if these shoulder portions of the jacket extend right into the undercollar  with the bias of the fabric aiding the drape of the collar or if the collar revers is cut seperately.  Liana might have figured this out.  She is much more observant than I.

Also notice the bias sleeves, except for the cuff, where the stripes go around the wrist.

To aid my memory I sketched out my interpretation of this jacket:

 

I really like the shape of this jacket and the angles of the
pinstripes. I think there is a lot to learn and be inspired by in this jacket particularly the use of grain and the bias, and the use of the directionality of the fabric to emphasize this.  Not only do you have the drape of the bias to emphasize womanly curves, an Armani strength, but you have the visual lines created by the fabric which can emphasize or de-emphasize our strengths and weakness, creating a shape where it might not be all that obvious, as well as emphasizing what is there.

After my peregrinations on Armani, I started thinking about the Chanel show. Liana showed this dress:

which I think is very nice with the shrug-like
shaping and the slightly fuller skirt.

There was also this dress:

As you can see, the second dress is a variation on the first.  I like the more geometric treatment at the neckline, but both are very nice and quite adaptable. 

By manipulating the photos extensively in Photoshop I was able to make out some of the seaming, but my Photoshop skills are not so highly developed that, by the time I could see what was going, there was much of a presentable picture left to post.  Both dresses have horizontal seams just at, or just below, the bustline, and both have horizontal seams at the hip as well, much like the lighter dresses in the show.  On the second dress, the seam is definitely below the bust, but I am not convinced this is the case in the first dress. Both dresses also have princess seams which extend at least as far as the pockets below the hipline, and probably extend beyond that as well:

Here is my interpretation, kind of a melding of the two styles:

The potentials for this shape, with variations on sleeves, neckline (full or cropped shrug), and skirt width, are endless and I can envision it in various fabrics.  Even though the waist seems to be the emphasis this year, the basic design of the dress is quite classic and could flatter many.  Of course, for myself, I would leave the flaps off the pockets at that low hip level, as this would most definitely not be a flattering look for me.  But then, that is one of the joys of sewing one’s own.

Even though my sewing explorations last night were virtual, I can see that the ideas generated will spill over into my actual sewing and who knows where these ideas might turn up?

 

I admit that I can be fiber-crazed at times and knit or sew things that any rational person would instantly perceive as a disaster in the making.  In fact, even while caught up in the fiber-frenzy, the large, annoying, rational part of my brain is probably arguing this same point with the naive, optimistic, creative part.  Generally the creative process wins the battle and I plow ahead full of blind hope.  The rational side often wins the war however and gets to gloat in the end; nothing is quite as sweet as “I told you so”.

Chalk one up to the creative forces:

This was meant to be a sweater.  I didn’t really want to knit it, and I wasn’t sure what I thought of the yarn, but it was easy to knit and fast, and I found it in the top of my closet, already started and abandoned.  Had it been skeins of virgin yarn, not yet in the process of being a “project” I could have turned my back and sold it or given it away.  But no.  I found this project already on the needles, needles still intact (I had wondered where that size 15 circular had gone).  A started project has a life of its own.  It can be put aside but I have a hard time completely aborting it.  Aside from general fiber-frenzy the rational side of my brain was also caught up in its own little hell-hole, called the de-clutter-frenzy.  I HAD to finish that project.  The alarms were disabled; there were no stops in place.

Luckily I basted the misbegotten thing together before final seaming and was faced with the terrible truth:  that sweater made me look something like that B-movie classic, The Blob.  All hope was not lost however, the yarn was mostly wool with a nylon binder.  I threw it in the washer with the hottest water and the hardest cycle. Twice.  I did not machine dry it fearing that might be overdoing the process a little bit. 

The resulting fabric is quite nice.  There is nothing quite like recycling somethng before it is ever even created, call it pre-cycling.

The knitting is still quite evident but the piece has become a kind of boiled wool lace.  Here is a detailed shot; sorry it is a little fuzzy.  Dark rainy days are probably not the best time for this kind of photography on a very small point and shoot camera.

I think this would be very nice as panels in part of a short casual jacket perhaps based on a jeans jacket or Nancy Erickson’s 1962 jacket pattern.   Of course it would have to be blended with some other fabric.  I originally envisioned a wide wale corduroy with perhaps a cotton print lining, making the jacket essentially reversible, the wool felt as panels with its edges sandwiched between two layers of fabric. 

I don’t have any corduroy that color in my stash.  I thought I would check out the other options but, although there are several fabric in the right colors none of them were really compatible in terms of texture, feel, formality.  They did not make good neighbors.  I was ready to accept the lure of the shopping demon and head to the fabric store.

BUT…

I remembered something.  I have this wonderful embroidered fabric remnant I got a Britex a couple of years ago (4? 5?).  There is not quite enough for a short jacket and it too has been waiting for the perfect fabric complement to appear.  It is not indexed in my fabric file because you can’t capture this particular fabric on a 3×5 card.  It lives with the other unique and non-classifiable fabrics:

I think they will be a perfect match.  The total may be a little more art-to-wear and over-the-top than I would usually plan, but I think I like them together.  They have been sitting out overnight and no fights have broken out.  The combination is growing on me.  I need to let the fabrics sit together a little longer however; hopefully I will eventually start to envision how the jacket might actually look.  Ideas are beginning to trickle in but the flow is still quite slow.  I will keep you informed but it may be a little while yet.

Akris is selling some tailored jackets,simple in style, shoulder princess with inseam pockets on the front.  The jackets are lined but the edges of the jacket are entirely finished by serging outer fabric and facing together.

I can’t decide if I would actually do this, I might, the finish is light and kind of modern.  But I am undecided.  I am convinced I would not pay $3800.00 for this jacket though.

I hve been thinking about sewing the yellow linen pants.  I know it seems surprising that such as simple thing as drawstring pants could require so much thought, but in my case it does.  I have also been busy and just too tired to sew, especially when I am not yet sure what I am doing.  I know I should just bodly go forward and tackle the project.  Perhaps tommorrow,as I will be out most of the day today, first taking Adam to the airport and then going to the wedding of a friend’s son.

However, I have started looking at the fall couture show photos on stye.com.  I have really only gotten through Armani so far, but there is lots more looking and dreaming ahead.  I know, this blog seems more about dreaming about sewing than actual sewing…

Following are a couple of things I liked, all from Armani Prive, all courtesy of style.com .

I really really like the shape of this little jacket.  It is, to my mind the nicest of the day clothes shown in the phtoos from style.  Some of the other day jackets are nice but a are a little too overtly feminine and flirty for me.  The dart/tuck shaping around the neck and shoulders is very sleek and flattering here and the jacket looks modern, sleek and feminine.

I am pretty confident that I have a pattern I could adapt for a variation on this look and it is really making me look forward to fall sewing.

(Ha!! I wont start fall sewing until the leaves start falling off the trees, I know myself too well.  But I will probably think about it.)

 

I do like the front shaping on this jacket, but it is far too
revealing as shown here.  It would be beautiful as an evening look over
a simple silk or lace shell and a long skirt or drapey pants.

The second evening look is very clean and simple and I especially like the contrast of the fabric, matt with rich.