I k i

いきCool chic, subversive fashion among Japanese townspeople during the first half of the 19th century. I love that term. I will aspire to iki, though I will never qualify. From Wikipedia (which I don't like), "Iki is an expression of simplicity, sophistication, spontaneity, and originality. It is ephemeral, romantic, straight forward, measured, audacious, smart, and unselfconscious." Let me see if I can work on one of those qualities. The picture at left is from http://www.japanesestreets.com/.

Waist Free

After reading a recent article in Threads Magazine, and then an online piece at the Center for Pattern Design about the concept of "Waste Free" garment construction, I just had to try a piece myself. Having never drafted or draped a garment, this was especially challenging, but my fabric demanded it! At the March 2010 Sewing Expo in Atlanta, I bought these 3 pieces of cotton kimono fabric from June Colburn. Each was about 14" wide and about 36" long, so even if I just stip-pieced them together, my piece would only be about 1 yard square - not much. But they go together so beautifully (thanks to June) and they needed to be used wisely. I ended up with this top and had almost no waste. I had to cut off a bit (less than an inch) from the bottom of the front and the bottom of the back. The striped piece was too sheer so I interlined it with cotton batiste, but did not have quite enough batiste. So I had to cut the fashion fabric.

This is what I started with:

And this is what was left.

The lower band portion was the first part I cut. It was cut into 3 pieces - 2 pieces for the front and back band. The leftover portion was sufficient to make a facing for the neckline. I reversed the facing so that it is a design element on the outside of the neck. This created 2 oval shaped remnants - one from the facing and one from the garment itself. The garment remnant was half from the dark fabric and half from the striped piece due to the way I pieced them right down the center front and center back. These pieces were perfect for little pockets in the front horizontal seam.

I had great fun making this even though DH says it makes me look hippy. I don't think he's referring to that 70's look either. So it really is (almost) waste free and (unfortunately) waist free - not a great look for me. Maybe the same concept can be applied to a larger piece of fabric so that I can avoid the horizontal line at my hips. In fact, I can now visualize an even better way to put these 3 together to avoid that hard horizontal line. It would've been even more cool to make one of the pieces run the length of the front, another run the length of the back, and then fit the leftover pieces into the side front and side back, so that the overall design would be vertical.

Good, Better, Vest

Things are really starting to take shape. Now is when the sewing is pretty addictive. I'm not sure where I am in the process, but it's a good place in terms of fun. I completed the piecing on all 12 pattern pieces. I did this by cutting out pre-washed flannel roughly around each pattern piece. I was generous in the seam allowance here. Then using 2.5 " strips of each of the silk dupioni fabrics, I attached it to the flannel using the flip and sew technique. I created some of the strips by combining the fabrics in more of a patch-work manner prior to attaching to the flannel base with flip and sew. I left plenty of dangling strips as I completely covered each flannel pattern piece with strips of silk dupioni.

Next I began the truly Zen part of the process - the actual quilting. I placed generously cut solid silver silk dupioni pieces on the flannel, creating the quilt sandwich. Of course, the stripped silk side was already attached to the batting (the flannel) so it is a little different from ordinary machine quilting. Except for the collar pieces, I decided to simply stitch-in-the-ditch on the strip-pieced side. I think creating new quilting lines would be too much. And the quilting is very subtle on the silver side.

For the collar pieces, there was really just one seam in the strip-pieced side, joining a silver tip to plain gold silk dupioni. So here I first stitched-in-the-ditch and then channel stitched at approximately 1" intervals. Again the quilting is subtle and the hand of each piece is very soft. I now have 12 small quilts since there are 12 pieces in this vest!

At this point, the pieces were still generously cut, not aligning perfectly with my muslin pattern pieces. So I stitched around the perimeter of each piece about 5/8" from the edge of my little quilts to hold them securely in place. Finally I put each original pattern piece from my muslin on top of each quilted piece and re-cut, following the precise edges of the pattern piece. Then I trimmed off the excess silk stripping.

For some pieces, like center backs and center fronts, I wanted the pieces to appear as mirror-images of each other. For example, the center back has a seam so there are 2 center back pieces. To do this, I created a pattern tissue from the muslin piece and placed the tissue over the untrimmed piece and determined where to trim off the edges. Each center back piece was trimmed separately. This allowed me to trace part of the patch-work design onto the pattern tissue when I cut the first piece and then flip the pattern tissue and precisely place it on the remaining center back piece prior to cutting this 2nd center back piece. Now my center back pieces (and front pieces) are more-or-less mirror images as can be seen in the picture of the center back pieces.

Perhaps I should've done this earlier, but I'm now re-reading all of Mary Ray's relevant articles from Threads:

• Threads #98 January 2002 "Basics: Seam Finishes" page 20
• Threads #100 May 2002 "Binding Notched Collars" page 52
• Threads #122 January 2006 "Batting for Quilted Garments" page 49

So I'm now looking forward to actually attaching the vest pieces. What fun, even if I never actually wear it!

Doing My Vest

The vest challenge for City Wide Couture has me on task, finally. Thanks to Martina, the armholes are fitted, and of course, thanks to Pam Howard, the body of the vest was already a good fit. I'm working from Nancy Erickson's #1945 jacket pattern, converting it to a vest. I'm also working on a quilted vest, inspired by Mary Ray's articles in Threads. I'm piecing one side and the other will be solid. The theme is soft metals and it's underway! Later I'll have to determine which side gets the seams.

SWAP - the colors

As I look at this pile of fabric, I'm still struggling to select a color scheme for the Sew Incredibles Sewing With A Plan challenge. So I'm posting these combinations to see what sticks. I feel I need to make something like a coat and pants out of that light grey wool that Cynthia Guffey talked me into at Expo 2009, yes Expo 2009, not 2010. I worry when I keep wool. Will little bugs crawl in there and destroy it. Will it develop permanent folds? Will it fade? I refold it from time to time and store it in a dark closet, but yet... I was really inspired by Hellenne's reversible linen coat and so I'm drawn to that solid dark gray linen, but it hasn't really aged - bought in the now defunct Silk Road shop in Austin TX in June. And here's the coat I'm considering - Sewing Workshop's Verona Coat. I made the muslin in a Small on top and Medium on the bottom. It's too tight on top to wear a sweater under so I've just added the tissue (back) to the pattern pieces. Next I'll cut out a new muslin in a basic size Medium.

Oh Kimono 1.0

This is completed kimono muslin, version 1.0, in preparation for Camp Sew N Sew 2010. It comes after trying out a *free* kimono pattern that wasn't a success. Unless it was intended for a person with a very large neck and torso, it needed lots of re-work. The nearly finished kimono simply fell off my dress form and looked even worse on me. It needed more work than simply drafting my own.

So I drafted one from a kimono I purchased a few years back. I believe that it is a *real* silk kimono, complete with lining and no wasted fabric. The kids at Camp Sew N Sew will not be lining their kimono and I want to limit the yardage needed and to simplify, so I have made a number of changes. I'll post the complete instructions from my notes soon.

The sleeves do not have the cool pocket found in most kimono. That is, the sleeves are simple rectangles. I did include the side seam insert but may eliminate it in version 2.0 of Oh Kimono. I also left an opening under the arm, which is usually charming, authentic and practical here in Hot-lanta. But the transition from sleeve to side seam, without lining may be a bit tricky, so that opening may be eliminated too. It's so clean and beautiful with lining, as can be seen below. But we are not doing lining at camp, definitely.














Next I'll make a more-or-less wearable kimono. What fabric? I have some rayon batik I purchased from fabric.com at a warehouse sale a while back. But I need to decide what kind of fabric will be most practical for the kids at camp. Silk is out of the question for a sewing camp. Quilt cotton is easily available and fairly cheap at the big box stores, but rayon is so much prettier with the drape it provides. Maybe I'll check the big box stores to see if they have reasonably priced rayon.

Updating Hannah's plain dress

Needed to scoop out the neckline on this pattern as it was too tight on Hannah. Then decided to add some appliqued flower petals. I like the result. Hope Hannah does too.