le mani d'oro

I could not resist share this awesome video...  plus I will know where to find it in the future.

Tell me you won't sigh of admiration after watching this video...

Dites-moi que vous ne soupirerez pas d'admiration en regardant cette vidéo.


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 Extrait de Fasionologie: "How Chanel makes its little black jacket"

After a long day at work, just before the sun goes down, I was able to get DH for a very quick photo shoot. We took my little camera and the light was not perfect. There is a bit of digital noise on them :-( Not the effect I wanted but, that is ok for tonight.

Après une longue journée au bureau, mon conjoint a accepté de prendre quelques clichés de ma robe, un peu à la sauvette. Nous avions tous les deux bien hâte de manger. Les photos ne sont pas excellentes, veuillez m'en excuser. Il a un peu de bruit numérique lié à la basse lumière et parce que nous avons utilisé mon petit appareil de poche.

Do I like the dress? No not really. What don't I like... I am not certain though. The fabric probably. The pattern is neat and simple. The fabric makes me look too serious or old. As my friend Annette would say, this dress is perfect to walk the dogs... but I don't have a dog. Nevertheless some aspects of the dress are positive:

Est-ce que j'aime cette robe? Non, pas vraiment. À vrai dire, je ne sais pas pourquoi, mais je ne l'aime pas c'est tout. C'est le tissu fort probablement, le patron est charmant. Comme dirait mon amie Annette, elle est parfaite pour aller prendre une marche avec les chiens... mais je n'ai pas de chien. Malgré tout, il y a plusieurs aspects positif à ce projet tels:

1. My sway back correction is excellent. Well done ! La correction pour la cambrure du dos est parfaite.
   
   
2. The back neckline dart gives excellent fit in a zone that is very often problematic for me - L'ajout de la pince à l'encolure dos arrive à donner un très bon ajustement.
3. I learned a lot about the lining quilting method - Et puis finalement, j'ai beaucoup appris en réalisant cette robe.

If you do not remember, I used the Vogue 8146 pattern for that project. - Si vous n'avez pas souvenir, j'ai utilisé le patron Vogue 8146 pour ce projet.

I think I know what I don't like !!! It is 1 to 2 inches too short.

That's it, I finished it! I thought that I would never be able to finish it. I seriously believed at one point that this dress would become a UFO.

It is perfect? .... NO ! Am I worried because it is imperfect? NO! Why should I be? I took an inexpensive fabric with regular lining to learn the quilting method developed by Chanel. Now I am ready for the real thing.

Before I post pictures of the dress on me, here are picture of the outside and the inside. I really like the black top. If done all in the same fabric. I think it would be very dull.


Ciel, je ne pensais jamais terminer ce projet de couture. J'ai sincèrement cru que cette robe resterait dans ma penderie, penaude, "interminée" parce qu'interminable. Je pense avoir fait un kilomètre de points à la main pour finir l'intérieur de ce vêtement.


Elle-t-elle parfaite cette robe? Non ... Suis-je triste qu'elle ne le soit pas? Non... La réalisation de cette robe a été une belle expérience de couture. Un cours autodidacte. Tout d'abord j'ai ajouter un empiècement alors qu'elle n'en avait pas et pour la doublure matelassée, j'ai avancé pas en pas en lisant et en réfléchissant sur la bonne façon de le faire.

Maintenant, je suis prête pour la grande aventure. Je suis prête pour le bouclé de chez Linton et la doublure de soie.

Avant d'afficher des photos de moi portant la robe, je vous mets vite, vite des photos de l'intérieur et de l'extérieur.

Front view of the quilted lining

back view of the quilted lining

Of course, during all the sewing process I had to press my dress. But... I do not like that fabric all pressed and flat. So my dress is drying flat. I am wearing it tomorrow for work. Ahh yes, for the moement I do not think that I will but a biais tape on it.

Bien sûr, durant la confection, j'ai dû presser le tissu. Comme je préfère sa texture et son apparence lorsqu'il n'est pas pressé, j'ai lavé ma robe ce soir. Elle sèche bien sagement à plat. Si elle est prête, je la porte au bureau demain. youpi ! ah oui, j'oubliais, pour l'instant j'ai décidé de ne pas mettre de biais pour la "décorer". J'aime beaucoup la combinaison des deux tissus. Sans cela, ma robe serait définitivement terne.

After reading blogs, articles, reviews on quilting lining to fashion fabric, I jumped into the adventure. Why not, my first few tests were conclusive and my walking foot was so much willing to help.

Quilting per se is not difficult at all you start with a strait line, you stitch strait, use a waling foot with a guide and you go.

My dress is simple, I only had to quilt three pieces. Two for the back and one for the front.

One of the best reference, if you start such a project, is Birgitte's blog: Bubblegum4breakfat. Read all of her projects on the Chanel technique, you will not be deceived.

I also suggest the following readings:

Go Chanel or go home
The Sewing Divas
Deconstructing the Chanel Jacket
Orchids in May

Since I encountered situations for which those references did not have answers, here are my recommendations.

Before you start quilting

1. cut your fashion fabric 5 mm longer (top and bottom) and wider (both sides). Quilting might make your pieces smaller,
2. stitch all darts and make sure they are all very well pressed,
3. cut your lining pieces at least 1 cm longer (top and bottom) and wider (both sides) then the original pattern,
4. put lining and fashion on top of one other wrong sides together while doing so, carefully aligning the centre of the pieces (lining and fashion fabric),
5. pin the lining to the fashion fabric

Now you are ready to quilt each pieces. Of course the lining pieces exceed the size of the fashion fabric pieces it is attached to. This does not matter at all.

For the quilting operation

1. test with scraps of lining and fashion fabric see here. It might sometimes be easier to quilt with fashion fabric on top or underneath. In my case the fashion fabric was so bouclé that it got caught into the walking foot one every second stitch.
2. if your fabric does not have vertical line (like the one I used) draw in strait line in the centre of your pieces (front or back). It will be the first one you quilt.
   
3. use your guide at 2.5 cm wide to quilt the rest
4. leave at least 3 cm on side and top hedges not quilted. This is necessary for your seams with extra space for last minute alteration.
5. for the hem, if you hem width is of 5 cm stop at least 7 cm above hem line.
6. keep very long threads both at the beginning and end of you quilting lines. Those will be knotted only at the end.
7. you can quilt vertically only or make squares as you which. Here are examples of both techniques. Here as well. Choose the one for you.
8. When the quilting is all done, put the tissue pieces over the fashion fabric to verify that the size of piece is appropriate.
   
9. Mark all seam line with thread.
   
10. Assemble your garment.
11. Finish the lining seams by hand.
    

As you can see in the first picture, the dress is all assembled. I simply need to hand stitch the lining seams and attach it to the zipper. I should finish it this weekend.

For the outside (I am working so much on the inside that I forget that the dress as a right side ;-)), I am thinking about adding a braid.




























To trim or not to trim, what do you think?



N.B. The picture with the trim was taken in an earlier stage of construction.

I finished cutting and marking all pieces for my dress (V8146). The top part is cut in left of over crepe use for a previous project (pants for DS). The lining pieces are also cut. Since this bouclé is very soft and thin, I know that I will be quilting the lining to the jacket pieces, but my question is: "Should I quilt the lining to the dress as well?" Has one of you ever done that? Oh big question.

I know that Birgitte, the author of the so excellent blog Bubblegum4Breakfast had done it on a skirt (lucky daughter to have such a generous and talented mother) Here is the interior look of the skirt


The result is wonderful. Anything Birgitte does is wonderful, anyway. If it works on a skirt. Why not doing it on a dress? I will give it a try on scrap of fabric and then decide.

What do you think?

My lining is not silk charmeuse. I don't think my fabric was worth enough for that. I use a beautiful serged bemberg lining that will do the trick.

I don't know how you proceed to correct your pattern from muslin adjustments but this is how I have learned it with Elisabeth Dionne, my favourite sewing teaching of all time.


1. I mark over the pins with marker on muslin or chalk on fashion fabric.


2. Do it on both sides


3. If you work with a muslin you can flatten it well on your work plan, superimpose your pattern on top (don't forget that seam allowance are in extra on the side) and retrace the new line on paper.




4. If you work with fashion fabric, bast over the chalk lines, rip the seam in that zone, lay it flat, correct the paper and then sew on the new seam line indicted by your contrasting baste line.

5. After enlarging the hip area and making the bust zone narrower this is what my pattern looked like. I took off 3.6 cm in the bust area and added 2.4 at the hips.






















6. The back of the dress also required corrections. In my point of view the sway back correction is a tricky one ,when the back line is initially curved. Over lapping the paper to shorted the back accentuates the back curve. You then have to straiten it or reshape it similarly to its original curve. Don't forget to redraw the grain line in the lower part of your dress (under the correction) and straiten your dart




The final look of my pattern pieces is the following one.


Now before cutting the fashion fabric I have to decide if I use the underlining - Hong Kong finish in one step as explained here by Laura. Since my dress is fitted, the bottom part at least should be like that. The top will be different. Probably with a regular technique that consist on attaching the lining to the facing.

I thank Sue for her pattern suggestion. She had suggested the Simplicity 2404 pattern to make my dress. since I decided on having the black piece above my chest, I finally stay with my initial pattern choice. Never the less, the Simplicity option will be in my next project for sure.

Today was muslin fitting day. Oh my, am I ever happy to have done a muslin. I usually cut my pattern with the following combinations of sizes: size 10 for the chest, size 6 for the waist and size 8 for the hips. This time it did not work as well as usual though the finished size indicated on the pattern matched my plan.

Here is the result with my comments on the pictures. Click to see better.

For the front I have to cut at least one size smaller for the top front part. I have 1.5 cm to take off. Keep in mind that I was looking for a close to very close fitting for this dress. The the breast area needs to be tighten, the waist is fine and the hips... need one size bigger.

For fitting the back, DH helped me. Please don't laugh at his fabric pinching in the neck area ;-)) This is far from being his favourite activity.Note here that I need to correct the neckline ... Don't worry, it will be more symmetrical. He is really kind to help me. I will not complain. As usual, I should have made a sway back correction... and maybe take fabric off in the centre back or deepen the dart. Hips need to be a bit enlarged. This pattern did not have volumes as other have. This is strange.

The neckline was higher initially. I should have left it where is was. Next time I will correct that after fitting ;-) I had made this correction after I read comments on Pattern Review that it was too big. What is good for Jane is not necessarily good for me. Corrections and cutting fabric will be done today.

I had bought this pink and black blouclé at Emma One Sock some 2 or even years ago. Originally, I had bought the fabric to make a DKNY outfit from Vogue (1067). As it often happen, I grew out of this project, jumped on another one and left the fabric all nicely folded in my fabric closet.

I would sometimes look at it and thought I could give it away or donate it for Kay's Fabric Flee Market or leave it there until I like it again.

The miracle happened. After reading Tany's excellent blog, I decided to mix Celine's style from spring 2010 with a touch of Chanel, to create an outfit I like...

Often on EOS's site, they recommend to dry clean fabrics. After washing a little square of it, I was amazed of I well it reacted. There it was all in the machine a delicate. It came out without wrinkles just nicely fluffier. I left dry in the air. Amazing, this fabric is amazing. Easy washing, fast drying and no ironing required. Oh My, I call that perfection in the fabric department. Perfect to for work !!

I cut part of my muslin tonight, the rest will be done Thursday and soon sewn.

As I said before, the jacket is based on a Burda pattern (BWF 2010-11-104) and one Etro jacket I saw at Holt Renfrew. They use bands of fabric with beaded trims. I wonder if the fabric bands are on bias or not ??? The fabric use for the trim is the same as the one use in this skirt project.

I know I said it, I am very much exited about this project.

photo credit: Etro.it

Today will be dress design day. I am starting with Vogue 8146 as a base.

Since I want to the upper chest part to be in a different fabric, I think that princess seams would not be suitable. This Vogue pattern has long and deep darts instead.

The neck opening is not what I want. I will draw it based on my Go Pattern dress. The rest will or might stay as is, I will see.

To go with it, I want a short and simple no collar, round neck line Chanel type of jacket. I digged into my Burda and Patrones magazines for it and this is what I selected:






Unless you have a suggestion...

Je n'ai pas une grande expérience des achats sur e-bay. En réalité, j'ai fait mon premier achat ce matin "ebayesque". Quelle surprise, j'ai acheté un patron! J'adore les vêtements simples est les lignes fluides et j'ai été séduite par cette robe. La vendeuse parlait d'un patron des années 1970. J'ai des petites doutes. La photo, la coiffure, le tuxedo de l'homme et son noeud papillon m'indique plutôt qu'il s'agit probablement plus d'un patron du début des années 1980.

Qu'en dites-vous?

Je connais peu de chose de Stan Herman. Voilà un designer à découvrir pour moi. Cette robe me semble un jeu d'enfant à réaliser. Je vous tiens au courant des détails du patron dès que je le reçois.

I do not have a big experiene of e-bay shopping. Well, to tell you the truth, I bought my first item on this site this morning and Oh surprise, I bought a pattern. Isn' t this incredible? I like the dress at first site, the lines are simple and flowy, my favourites when it come to clothing. I love to wear capes and flowy dresses that are moving gently in the air when I walk. The seller indicated that this pattern is from the 1970's. I have little doughts about that. The hair style, the dress, the gentelman's tuxedo and his bow tie call for the early 1980's instead.

What do you think?

I know very little about Stan Herman. Here is a designer for me to discover. So far my searches are not very fructuous. This dress seams so puerile to sew. I will keep you up to date when I receive the pattern.

J'entame aujourd'hui la lecture de cette biogaphie de Grabrielle Chanel. Le film avec Audrey Tautou se base sur cette biographie. Je vous en parle en cours de lecture.


Also, I am starting this biography of Gabrielle Chanel. The movie featuring Audrey Tautou (whom you might have seen in the movie Da Vinci Code) is base on this biography. Come back later for an overview of the book.


Bon Samedi, Happy Saturday !




P.S. I love Keira... she is so natural and so Chanel


s

Intéressant, non ?

I love her voice that was certainly deepen by her (bad) smoking habit. It is interesting to note that for her, at the time, smoking was not unfashionable. In that video she is asked to define elegance. Her answer: Elegance is rare in France !! and Haute couture is not necessarily elegant because designers and women simply over do it. Simplicity is elegant according to her. (Of course I agree) She is also asked about her reaction to copies and adaptation of her style by women "on the street" meaning you and I type of people. To summarize her thought, imitation is the result of success and fashion designers should not be offended by it. Therefore, we can inspire ourselves without feeling guilty.