Sewing: Lotta Jansdotter's Everyday Style

I was looking to freshen up my wardrobe, so I picked up this book last fall...

...and I've made several projects from it since then. The book includes patterns for several basic wardrobe pieces, including accessories. It goes through each season, showing ideas for how to customize and style different pieces for that time of year.

Elsa Bag

I started with something simple, and I have an addiction to bags anyway. The Elsa bag is a very simple, roomy tote with leather handles. I really like the look of the handles, and they are just riveted into place. It was not difficult or expensive to get the required tools and supplies to do this. I picked up the rivet tool, leather, and copper rivets at the Tandy store. 

The fabric is a piece of canvas-weight upholstery with a Persian motif that I had in my stash. I can fit books, magazines, lots of stuff in there. 

Esme Tunic

I wanted a dress that I could wear in cold weather with leggings, so the next thing I made was the Esme tunic. I scaled the pattern up a bit from the largest size, and adjusted it for a large bust. 

The fabric is a medium-weight wool melton that I originally got for making viking garb, but decided to repurpose it for mundane wear. It's very comfortable and cozy to wear in the winter, with boots and fleece-lined leggings. 

Tedra Skirt

Having invested in boots and leggings, I decided to add a skirt to my winter wardrobe.

 

This was a large scrap of wool tartan from my stash. I had just barely enough to cut the pieces out on the bias, but it didn't take much for the short skirt.

Patchwork Scarf

In addition to the patterns, there are instructions for making accessories, like this patchwork scarf:

This was a great opportunity to use up some of my smaller scraps, and put some fun combinations together. It's a good scarf "recipe." I will probably make a few more of these.

That's all for now. So far, the book has been very useful. The patterns are basic, but versatile, and they look good on a variety of body types. You can change the look of each piece by using different fabrics and making some of the accessories. 

With warmer weather coming, I'll probably make some lighter-weight stuff to wear through spring and summer. 

Books: Shape Shape, and Drape Drape

Had my eye on both of these books for a while now, and they both have sequels out already, but I finally picked up the first volumes of each series.

My main complaint about a lot of modern sewing books is that there are too many of them at the beginner level, or they are focused on quick and easy projects. A lot of them have a big introductory section on basic sewing techniques. I don't need that. I like learning new techniques, and I like projects with a bit of a challenge. Both Shape Shape, and Drape Drape present me with what I'm looking for.

Shape Shape

Lots of simple and elegant, but unique ideas here. A lot of these projects do look quick or easy, but they are very different shapes from what you usually see out there. A lot of styles can be worn in multiple ways, like "origami" for clothing. A lot of the styles look ideal for using beautiful, plain fabrics, or showing off an elegant print.

Drape Drape

I'm in love with many of these looks, and I'm fascinated with the draping techniques that are illustrated here. It looks a bit challenging, but this is exactly what I've been looking for. Of course, most of the patterns call for drapey fabrics, such as knits. I'm cool with this too. There are many looks here that I want to make for myself.

Book: BurdaStyle Sewing Vintage Modern

I have fallen behind in posting book reviews here, because I picked this one up shortly after it came out. If you got the first BurdaStyle Sewing Handbook, this is a good follow-on to that. It has more basic patterns with instructions for variations, and even includes a pattern for a mens shirt (in addition to several iconic dress silhouettes, blouses, and pants).

Meanwhile, I made two blouses from the blouse pattern in the BurdaStyle Sewing Handbook, like so:

I wore this one this week as part of my work-travel wardrobe. 

Book review: DIY Couture by Rosie Martin

This was an impulse purchase and I am pleasantly surprised.

http://www.amazon.com/DIY-Couture-Create-Fashion-Collection/dp/1856697991

There are a lot of books of this nature out lately because making your own clothes has caught on with the younger crowd, but I find some of these books rather boring. NOT this one. It definitely takes a unique approach and offers a lot of cool, interesting designs.

It covers 10 basic wardrobe pieces, and eight different variations on each one, so that's 80 different styles to play with. The pieces include:

A straight skirt
The Grecian dress
The skater skirt
A waistcoat
A cape
A slouch top
The goddess dress
A hoody/jacket
trousers
and a romper

The variations follow eight different themes:

The Acid Candy collection: bright and modern
The Monochrome Art collection: black and white and classic
The American Road trip collection: a little boho, country, hippy
The Rude Disco collection: glam and flashy
The Coffee Classic collection: stylish neutrals
The Jungle Punk collection: fun and funky
The Safari Prep collection: earth-tone classics
The Tea Picnic collection: girly and flirty

The beauty part is, there are no patterns. The instructions for constructing each piece describe how to use your own measurements and clothes to draft a pattern, and you don't need anything fancier than a t-shirt or pair of jeans that fit you well.

If you have never sewn anything before, this is not the place to start, but if you have a few finished projects under your belt, most of the looks in this book are within your grasp. The instructions for pattern drafting and constructing each piece are well illustrated and easy to follow. This collection also leaves lots of room for your own ideas and customization. This is a great, inspiring springboard.

The Queens Servants: Rusty gown with W neckline

Yes I have gone a bit crazy with The Tudor Tailor. I just couldn't wait to get the new book - The Queens Servants - at Pennsic, so I ended up paying for shipping from the UK. It was well worth it. They do an excellent job of researching and illustrating the clothing, and the patterns are working out pretty well. 

New pattern from The Tudor Tailor

They have this new full-size pattern for the gown I made, but once again I just drafted the pattern out of the book and scaled it up to my size.

I am fascinated by this W neckline, but it was a bit tricky to pull off. It is trimmed in black velvet. I also stiffened the bodice with reed boning. I'm hoping that with the back lacing, it will be supportive enough. Ideally, I should have made a kirtle to go underneath this gown, and that would provide the support, but I want to be able to wear this alone over a chemise/smock.

The Tudor Tailor comes to life

Progress continues on the late Tudor wardrobe, inspired by this look from The Tudor Tailor:

  

They have published a pattern for it, but I had already started drafting the pattern from the grids in the book - which worked out really well. 

 

I made the kirtle/petticoat out of some red linen that I sat on for a long time. I was glad to liberate it from my stash. The fitted, open front gown is made of a burnout velvet with a fine print that has also been sitting around for a while. 

 

The paned sleeves were the trickiest part, but I like how they look. The tartan bodice looks good on the red kirtle, too. I probably won't ever make sleeves because it's always too hot at Pennsic to wear them. 

Books on Audio: At Home

I recently listened to Bill Bryson's At Home: A Short History of Private Life on audio, read by the author, and I really enjoyed it. It's something I could probably listen to multiple times. In At Home, he provides a rich perspective on things we take for granted today, like why we live in houses, why we have flush toilets, furniture, electric lighting, gardens, and so on, by taking a deep look into the history of his home - a rectory built in 1851 in England. He talks about the architects and inventors that made all the comforts of home that we enjoy today possible. Prior to the 19th c., most people scratched out a living and had very few comforts to speak of.

Things to add to the bucket list:

Visit Skara Brae
In At Home, Bryson talks about some of the earliest known homes - Skara Brae being one of them.


Visit Catalhoyuk
This is another curious site of early homes found in Turkey - Catalhoyuk - Bryson referred to.


Catalhoyuk dates back to 7500 BCE - 5700 BCE, and Skara Brae dates back to 3180 BCE–2500 BCE. Both predate the Pyramids, and Stonehenge.

Making stuff out of other stuff: upcycling mens shirts

Taking my inspiration from the Cut-Up Couture book, I completed a couple projects over the weekend that took a few very ordinary mens shirts and transformed them into interesting clothes for me.

This long coat was made from two plain black sweat shirts that I got at Kmart, on clearance, for $2 each. It's really cuddly, too. The deviated quite a bit from the version that is described in the book. I kept the long sleeves, added the lapels, and did not include the patch pockets. 

front

back

This top is made from two different mens shirts, also $2 each from Kmart, and it's a little more obvious how they went together. Once again, I used an idea from the book as inspiration, but added my own touches. I had to add the buttoned panel on the front to make it fit around the bosom, and I added the ruffles on the sleeves to make it look more girly. 

Note: I draped the shirts onto my toile before cutting into them, because the measurements given in the book were definitely for a smaller person than I. I made adjustments accordingly.

Bug-building and book-buying continues...

My multi-part series on working with foam floor tiles to make an alien costume is coming along over at the d-Infinity blog. This project is quite a departure from my usual skill set, but I'm enjoying it. I'm pretty much making it up as I go along, but the results are pretty cool-looking. 


In other news, I splurged on a few new sewing books.

Cut-Up Couture, Yamase

Do you have a lot of large-to-XL men's shirts lying around that you would like to recycle into wearable clothes? Well this is the manual for that. This book takes more than just a cut-apart-and-piece-together approach. It deconstructs the garments in clever ways to remake them into modern couture-looking dresses, skirts, and tops. I already dove in and made up one of the projects using a couple of t-shirts. The only criticism I have is that all the projects are one size, and need to be adjusted to fit real people. It inspires and challenges me to look at recycling old clothing in new and different ways.

The BurdaStyle Sewing Handbook, Abousteit

I have been wanting a copy of this since it came out, just to have it. I follow the BurdaStyle blog and have downloaded and used many patterns from the web site. There are at least a few styles in here that I would like to make for myself, and it includes the pattern sheets and lots of ideas for variations. 

Fabric-by-Fabric One-Yard Wonders, Yaker

This was an indulgence. There's something in here for everyone, from fashion accessories, to stuffed toys. There are a lot of patterns for children's clothing, which I don't have much use for, but plenty of other useful patterns, and it comes with the pattern sheets. I think I like this volume more than the first iteration of One-Yard Wonders because it has more things in it that I might use.