Moving On

Just a quick note to say that clearly this blog has been very dormant for quite some time now, time and enthusiasm for blogging whilst also running a business, having a day job and all the other stuff that humans need to do has been in short supply! I know it's still getting traffic from Pinterest though, mainly for my tutorials and a few other bits, so I'm reluctant to delete it altogether as I think people are still finding some of my content useful. 

So for anyone interested in the Bunny Bosworth business and how it's been developing over the last few years you can head over to my shiny new website! 

www.bunnybosworth.com

And if you're interested in more crafty adventures you can find my dressmaking blog here;

https://shouldbesewing.wordpress.com

Happy reading!

Making Plans

My studio suffers from an abundance of dress patterns, all safely stored away in an old filing cabinet, and of fabric, which is less safely shoved on a very bowed set of shelves for all the world to see. Fortunately there is one very simple solution to this problem; MAKE THINGS. Here is what I am thinking so far...

A Hazel dress by Colette in a retro floral cotton.

Some sort of pajama-y/night dress/shorts thing in these Tana Lawns I was given for Christmas.

 I've got loads of this poly-cotton madras fabric so potentially a cheongsam style dress altered from this pattern, and..

A 50s style shirtwaister using this Burda repro pattern.

Still not decided on this one, I LOVE the fabric, and am thinking a peplum top in a similar style to this dress. Or maybe a skirt? Or something else entirely?

 Possibly a blouse in this green print chiffon, although there's about 3m of it, so I could do a full dress?

 I got a copy of Drape Drape ages ago and haven't made anything from it yet so hopefully this navy stripe jersey will become a lovely dress like this one.

 And this blue and grey jersey might get the Drape Drape treatment too, maybe with a bit of contrast trim, or a printed yoke section.

For once I've been a good dressmaker and washed all my fabrics first, with varying success, that blue jersey is VERY blue and it's not afraid to share it. No major disasters, just might need to get some colour run remover next time I'm in town...

So, what's on your sewing pile? 

Snippets

I'm back in that hut at the bottom of a garden in Oxfordshire again, this time for a production of Great Expectations. I'm going to share a few of the costume highlights so far (a trip to Bristol Costume Services is on the cards for next week, I LOVE hire companies).

 First up, fabulous military jacket covered in braid, mmmmmmmm braid.

Next, a couple of delicate embroidered blouses. The first one is commercially made (as opposed to being made for theatre or by a costume company).

The embroidery is really fine, in a pale blue variegated thread on the latte colour silk crepe.

I haven't got round to doing the ironing yet.

The second blouse is possibly a one off, there are no labels to be seen, so I don't know if it was a theatre make or a home make that has made it's way into the costume store.

The scallop detailing on the cuff is incredible, but what had me most intrigued was the embroidery on the body of the blouse.

It looks like a simple running stitch outline, with a trellis pattern in the flower centres, but the leaves and petals look more opaque than the surrounding area. At first I thought it was an incredibly small and neat applique, but closer inspection of the reverse shows that this is not the case.

It's not very easy to see in the photo, but the running stitch on the outside is actually the back of a herringbone stitch that has been worked over all the petals and leaves, which is what's making those areas more opaque. I've never seen this technique before, does anyone know if there's a particular name for it? Clearly it's only effective with sheer or semi-sheer fabrics, but it's so clever!

Finally it's this late Regency velvet and damask gown. There are so many details in this dress that I love.

Narrow braid over the curved bodice seam.

Pleated front section, gold piping and a crepe chiffon contrast.

MASSIVE puff over sleeves.

I fully expect to see more of this kind of thing next Friday as I'll be in Bath to see the Laura Ashley exhibition at the Assembly Rooms, expect many photos.

Size Matters

I've been thinking about size a lot recently. More specifically clothes sizing, most specifically women's clothes sizing and how very arbitrary and unhelpful it is for numerous reasons. I proably won't be able to cover all of my problems with it in one post, so I might try to cover the issues very generally now, and then come back to some select points at a later date, we shall see.

Why must we define our size with just one number?
I understand that it is not possible to make every item of clothing a company has for sale in every single possible combination of sizes, obviously it would be never ending. I also see that compared to men's clothing it makes sense, as they tend not to go in for all in one items*, and these numbers are 'dress' sizes. When trying to design and fit an item that covers 3 of the key measurement areas (bust, waist, hips) as well as the question of length in body, skirt and arms, it must be difficult to average it all out to a point where it fits the majority of women. Clearly the people in the know have had to perform some complex maths in order to create a univerally applicable sizing system that makes shopping a breeze.

 But they haven't. Or they did, but it was decades ago and it's become largely obsolete with modern diets, lifestyles, style of clothes we're wearing and the underwear we are choosing.

Even if it did still function it wouldn't matter because individual retailers and designers have free rein to fudge the numbers and make the customer feel better or worse about themselves, to sell more clothes (flattery), to sell less clothes (exclusivity) or just to be a pain in the arse (I have no proof of this one, it's just a suspicion). I've found that the older the target market of a store, the more generous the sizing. Also, the more expensive the shop the smaller the range of sizes they hold. Is this an indicator of production limitations or an effort to refine the customer base (the range will be at the smallest end, without fail.)

 *Perhaps the ubiquitous onesie may change this, should it prove to have sartorial staying power, but I doubt it. On a similar note I have never fathomed the logic of selling men's shirts sized only in relation to neck measurement, the smallest measurement you could base it on, except perhaps wrists. At least for women it tends to be your widest part that gets the deciding vote. 

Tutorial: Caped Crusader

We’ve been in our flat since the beginning of December but until Tuesday had been keeping all our clothes in a suitcase on the floor, not very convenient. Having finally got a wardrobe up to our second floor flat I had a mini purge of my clothes before putting them away, and culled a few plaid skirts for fabric and filled a bag for Oxfam. Amongst my soon to be shredded skirts was this wool blend half-circle (dreams of Mad Men office chic but just too frumpy).

 My initial plan was to hack a bit off to make myself a muff, but having opened the side seam I thought the shape leant itself very well to a little cape-coat. So, I am going to share with you how I made a dowdy skirt into a swish little cover up!

 First up, I removed the zip and the waistband (both worth keeping, never throw anything away!) When you lay the skirt out flat you can see how the shape would work for a cape. In an ideal world I’d have used a full circle skirt, lots of extra volume for swooshing and more room for arm movement, a half circle works just fine though.

 I folded the skirt down the centre and marked the middle on the waist edge, then pinned the skirt onto my mannequin with that centre point lined up at the centre back of the neck. If you’re doing this yourself and don’t have a mannequin I’d advise using yourself instead and having a reliable friend there to help.

 Then, I brought the edge I unpicked round to the front, keeping the grain running straight across (made easier by the check pattern) and pinned to the centre front. Doing this with both edges, lining up the squares, gave me an overlap that was equal on both sides (but a hem that was not, ho hum).

Once this was all pinned in place I had extra fullness around the neck area, easily fixed by putting a dart in each shoulder.

Because I matched the squares, which left me with an uneven hem, I also had an uneven neckline at the front so I copied the curve from the left side and trimmed the right side down to match. I also cut across the line of the darts leaving a 1.5cm allowance.

Next, I unpinned the cape from the mannequin, leaving marker pins in to show CF’s and CB. I used this as a pattern piece to cut my lining. Because the skirt is already hemmed I cut the lining to the same length, so that once the lining is hemmed it will sit shorter than the outer.

These two helped.

 

Next up, I hemmed the lining then stitched my shoulder darts in lining and outer. In the picture they are sewn straight across, but I later altered this to a slight downward curve at the shoulder end to stop it being too pointy. If you fancy you could hand tack some shoulder pads in too.

 At this point it might be an idea to interface the centre front edges of the outer cape, just so far as they overlap, to give a crisper shape and a bit more stability for whatever fastenings you use. I didn’t have any interfacing so I didn’t bother.

The front edges I sewed right sides together, then to stop the lining rolling to the outside I understitched the seams to the lining edge (fold the seams over to the lining side and stitch through all three layers close to the edge from the right side).

Back on the mannequin I pinned the CF and CB back in place and measured the neckline circumference. I could have drawn up my own collar pattern, or just seamed the neck edge and left it collarless. Piping or some other sort of trim would have made a nice finish too, but I had a collar I’d removed from another jacket (also cannibalised for fabric) and luckily it was the exact right size so I sewed that straight in, matching the CB of the cape to the centre of the collar, and understitching the lining as with the front edges.

 

 I decided to just put a fastening at the top of the opening, and used two press studs with a couple of big vintage buttons on top for detail.  At this point you could stop and you’d have a very nice cape, but I wanted to belt mine in for shape so I used the leftover waistband (you see!) and made a simple belt loop for the centre back, using the mannequin to find the right level for the waist.

The next step is possibly the trickiest, but it makes all the difference. To get that cape-coat effect you need to belt around the front and back but leave the ‘arms’ free, so I made little faced windows, two on the front waist, and two at the back, to thread my belt through.  The method I used is a shortened version of the Bound Buttonhole Tutorial on the Coletterie blog (full of incredibly useful dressmaking tips and techniques, as well as the wonderful patterns they produce).