A SEQUIN SHIFT FOR A MISSISSIPPI WEDDING

Why does no one tell you when you buy your first sewing machine, "Have fun. But don't even think about tackling sequins unless you have 6 whole seasons of Sex and the City to watch while you methodically remove sequins from your seam lines". Bernina, Viking, Singer, et al., I'm looking at you. Seriously. WE NEED TO BE WARNED.

I've made some pretty involved stuff in my few years of sewing, but nothing, NOTHING (not rolled chiffon hems, not bound buttonholes, not bra-making) compared to the labour that went into this sequin dress.

Get ready for a photo deluge. I sewed this fugging thing for a whole month and it doesn't count if I don't drown you in photos of the pretty, shiny albatross.

Before I explain why I am posing on the steps of a beached houseboat in Mississippi, why don't I tell you what went into this beautfiul chevron asshole.

I'm feeling listy. Let's see:

1. The original pattern (a 60's shift from Burdastyle's Sewing Vintage Modern) did not even remotely fit. There was MAJOR back gappage and it took 2 muslins, dozens of adjustments and the spontaneous purchase of Fit for Real People to make it work. I pinched out many inches from the back seam (and then eliminated it all together), shifted the shoulder seam forward, pinched off the front.... the works. The final product fits like a dream. In the process, I learned I need to make forward shoulder and/or high rounded back adjustments to my clothes. Damn office job (and damned inability to ever attend a yoga class) explains the gapping I get in almost everything I've sewn. It's only taken me 2 years to figure it out.

2. The pattern did not call for sleeves so I frankensteined some from another pattern. I was recently won over to the concept of zero ease in sleeve caps after reading this (especially because sequins, in a shocking turn of events, look like disco barf when eased). I removed the ease by measuring the armscythe and sleeve opening. The sleeve was 4 cm larger, so I folded the difference out and redrew my sleeve curve. There is a good tutorial for this here. I initially drafted a short sleeve but got nervous about the sequins rubbing up against each other under my armpit, so I drafted yet another sleeve, this one more of a little shoulder cap that would not create pit friction.

3. Once I had FINALLY got the fit down, I cut out my fabric. I should mention, this was an amazingly lucky score from a swap we had in Montreal. Monseratt, I was blessing and cursing you during the making of this dress, but the two yards of bronze chevron hell came in on the side of Good in the end. Rather than use weights and a rotary cutter as is my wont, I traced the pattern pieces on the wrong side and cut them out using heavy duty shears. I was trying my best to match the pattern on the sides as well.

4. Now I had 4 pattern pieces and about 20 feet of seam lines to prepare. Here is where this epic sewing tale took a gnarly Lord of the Rings "Thou Shall Not Pass" twist. You have to remove sequins from your seams. You will destroy your machine if you don't. So I spent hours, days, weeks, on my couch with a protective lap cover snipping each faux leather and tiny metallic sequin off with tiny scissors, and then pulled each one off the thread with tweezers. If you just seam rip them off you will loosen the entire thread and will be dropping sequins like bread crumbs. My house looked like Rupaul exploded in it for weeks. I kept finding sequins everywhere - my bed, my shoes, my tub. Thank god the cats can't complain.

Here you can see me naively trying to minimise the amount of sequins to remove. I used a sharpie to mark just under 5/8" of an inch and removed ever sequin the sharpie touched. When I sewed everything together, I would inevitably catch one here or there so those had to be removed as well. Once the seams were sewn, I went and removed everything along the seam allowance to remove bulk and allow me to serge them together. Hours, days, weeks, people.

5. Once the main pieces were assembled, I made a simple lining out of a stretch net (the sequined fabric had stretch as well). I sewed the neck opening down and then turned the lining in. The sleeves were lined and assembled separately. Attaching everything at the arm hole took a little McGyvering but I got it done. BUT. The lining was too lightweight and despite the understitching I had done at the neckline, kept flipping up. I had to hand sew the seam allowances to the net lining in order to get it to stay down. Not my best work. I was exhausted and my hands were sequin throbbing.

 6. Once I removed the sequins from the hem, I realised a simple folded hem wouldn't do. I made a hem facing out of a similarly weighted stretch fabric and then hand stitched it to the inside. This is maybe my new favourite hem finish - it looks so profesh and gives a nice weight to the bottom.

7. FINALLY, I spent a night filling in the gaps where I removed too many sequins. This was after 6 seasons of Sex in the City and into the second movie. Thank heavens I was visually distracted by the dress and didn't have to pay too much mind to the MONSTROSITY that is SATC 2 (Samantha in the souk with condoms, ugh). But I digress.

The reason I embarked on this sequin journey in the first place was the fact that one of my favourite girlfriends was marrying a good ol' Southern Boy in Clarksdale, Mississippi. I wanted something fancy but casual for their wedding. Little did I know when I arrived that I would be staying in one of the greatest accommodations ever.... The Shack Up Inn. It is a collection of old sharecropper shacks surrounding a cotton gin. The place is loaded with charm and history (which you may have seen a little of in my Instagram feed this week).

At the risk of making this post even longer than it is, I can summarise the three days I spent there thusly:

Drank moonshine and ate smoked deer and wild boar ham and got into an discussion with a Southern Baptist preacher about global warming. Ate a chili cheeseburger for breakfast and followed it up with a rack of ribs for lunch and fried catfish for dinner. Carted a bottle of whiskey the size of my torso into a juke joint and watched an 80 year old man sing the blues while passing the bottle around. Gave the bride a pair of homemade white lace wedding night knickers. Kissed the best man in a muddy field. Danced in an old cotton gin with a mix of hipsters and extras from Duck Dynasty. Rode in a pickup, got very little sleep, drank more beer than I ever have in my life and learned to say y'all. Had the best time ever. Y'all.

The south is tremendously underrated.

Also, I dyed my tips with red Manic Panic this week.

Back to the real world, where sequins are for special occasions and the morning doesn't start with cracking a cold one. xoxo

All photos by the inimitable Alanna Whittington-Barnes.

AUTUMN IN CREAM

Today we turn the clock back, and "the man" tricks us into being happy with an extra hour of sleep in order to fool us into being satisfied with the fact that the sun will now set in Montreal at around 4:30 this afternoon. Aka, time to bust out the roast chicken recipes and settle in for a long season of sweaters and binge Netflixing. Right now I'm bundled up on on my balcony soaking in some sun, and trying not to think about it.

I've been slaving away on my sequin chevron dress, spending hours methodically removing sequins from all my seam lines. The wedding I am wearing it to is in 2 weeks time. So happy I started it early or there would be no way it would be ready in time. If it's not fabulous, expect tears.

I've made a few things since I got back from New York, and first on the list was a cream midi skirt inspired by this image on Pinterest. I've never subscribed to the no-white after Labour day policy - there is something so refreshing to me about a flash of white against the changing autumn leaves.

I picked up this stable cream knit for around $5 a yard, and deliberated about how full to make the skirt. I was worried a true circle skirt would be "too" full and went with a vintage pattern I had in my stash. I think it's a 1/4 circle skirt but I'm still not sure about the terminology. The pattern was quite small so I used it as a guideline and drafted a wide waist band and changed the zipper to a side placement. Unfortunately the waist is at least an inch and a half too big. The last few skirts I've made were a little too lacking in the ease department and I overcompensated. It can really only be worn with a cinched belt and it doesn't lie flat. I would probably take it in but the cheapness of the fabric is showing itself - it's already started pilling after a few wears. I doubt this skirt will be in rotation for too much longer unfortunately, but I hope to make a similar one in the spring out of a more lightweight material.

I'm also wearing my first t-shirt! I did a ruboff of my favourite T, and I've been wearing it non stop. It's SO hard to find the right one and now I can knock off as many as I like. I bought the jersey in SF (it's a slightly burned out striped knit) but it is showing it's quality as well as it's pilled quite a bit. I'm wondering if there is some method to test for this before buying fabric...

I don't take go on photo taking field trips too often but had fun walking around my neighbourhood looking for a leafy spot. I would love to use this playground again but the dropping temperatures will probably put the kibosh on any sleeveless posing for the foreseeable future.

To be honest, I'm getting a bit of the fall blues. The winters here are so harsh and long, it is a struggle to face the impending 5-6 months of housebound hibernation with any degree of cheer. I've been planning lots of dinners with friends (tonight I am planning on making this recipe for some loved ones, a dish I ate in San Francisco in the spring and cannot stop thinking about).

Additionally, I've decided to start a 30 day meditation challenge. Like most thinky, slightly neurotic types, I have a propensity to over-analyse and over-process and get stuck in negative mental patterns which don't accomplish anything other than anxiety. I've been hearing so many great thing about meditation as a remedy to this behaviour so I'll be trying to integrate 1 or 2 short sessions a day into my daily routine. I'm trying the Transcendental method to start (although there are many schools of thought on this) because I find repeated mantras  to be an excellent way of quieting your thoughts and refocusing your energy. TM is quite controversial because the courses are very expensive but I found a list of their mantras here. I'm often very sceptical of anything with a whiff of the new age, but so many surprising people I admire and respect are devoted meditation practitioners and claim it gives increased energy, creativity and inner calm (Seinfeld and David Lynch are devoted Transcendentalists). Has anyone else experimented with mediation? I remember my trip to San Diego last year when I was guided around by the sweetest, most thoughtful man. We went to go check out an architectural landmark and he left the group to go and meditate for a half hour by the ocean. His centred, peaceful energy totally made sense after that. Something to strive for.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN FROM KARL LAGERFELD

Hello everyone and Happy Halloween(ish)! As those of you who saw my Halloween posts last year know, I am crazy for this holiday. I would say it was my Christmas, if Christmas wasn't also my Christmas. Montreal takes getting dressed up in ridiculous costumes VERY seriously and there is nothing I love more than being crammed in a tiny bar with giant cactuses, Walter Whites and Party Robots.

I'm still recovering from the weekend (so much dancing -  I'm starting to feel my age) but I thought I'd share my costume with you this year. I debated for a few weeks about what I should be. I didn't have the energy to do a repeat of last year's epic monthlong costume-making extravaganza and was aiming for something thriftable, low budget and with minimal sewing.

In serious contention was Anne of Green Gables (I just thought such a sweet and wholesome costume would look HILARIOUS next to a sexy nurse/cat/dinosaur), Stevie Nicks & Lindsey Buckingham OR Lucille & Buster Bluth (both kiboshed because my Lindsey/Buster didn't feel like going out), Jerry Blank, Little Edie from Grey Gardens or.... Karl Lagerfeld.

It ended up deciding itself as I already had most of the components and also... I love this weirdo. Such a polarizing, iconoclastic figure, he exemplifies all that is sort of wrong and kind of fabulous about the fashion industry. He's an icon. And icons make very good Halloween costumes. (Please check out the documentary Lagerfeld Confidential. The man is an enigma wrapped in a tuxedo wrapped in a sound bite).

"I'm very down to earth. Just not this earth".

I call it "Karl Dragerfeld".

I already had a black jacket with a tailcoat, skinny black pants and black ankle boots. I picked up a high-collared blouse (SCORE!) at a thrift store and got the crucifex, fingerless gloves and sunglasses at a costume place and the dollar store. I made a cravat out of some drapey black fabric from my stash. All told I think I spent $25. 

I teased my hair into a dandy ponytail and coated it with some pretty heinous white spray. It didn't look 100% white but I didn't feel like buying a wig. I did a crazy smoky eye (wearing sunglasses at night, while very Cory Hart,  is not very condusive to conversation) and a nude lip. Threw on a military overcoat and a gold fan and just tried to look as stern, starved and fierce as possible.

Unfortunately I didn't get that many photos. Here is one of me and my friend Mike dressed up as Alien/James Franco from Spring Breakers (he actually got his hair cornrowed!!!!)

It was a very fun night, until some crazy person stole my dollar store glasses, but I managed to dance it off. Washing all the white out of my hair was another matter entirely!

What are you dressing up as this year?

AUTUMNAL SEWJO & A BROCADE MINI

Oy. What is it about the change from summer to fall that just makes me want to binge eat sweet potatoes and curl up under an afghan and do NOTHING at all? The same sewjo downer happened this time last year and I'm worried it will become some kind of dreaded annual tradition. Like my pap exam or the day we are forced to set the clocks back and lose an extra, precious hour of sun.

I'm sure it has something to do with all the cake I have on my list. It is rather hard to get excited about making pants. This evening I was about to cut out the muslin for my Simplicity Perfect fit trousers but got terribly depressed thinking about the many changes I will have to do to make them the skinny cigarette pants of my dreams. Muslins are not really the energy boost I need for my sewing batteries, I fear.

Last week I worked on a white cotton sateen Sewaholic Cordova jacket that really didn't match the vision i had in my head, and it is hanging in my studio sans lining, giving me the UFO stink-eye. So I'm thinking I may listen to myself and just take a breather for the next few weeks. Catch up on Game of Thrones and knit and not make beat myself up for feeling uninspired. I do have a rather big backlog of items to shoot and share, so hopefully things will at least perk up on the blog front.

Take this brocade mini for example....

I scored this precioussss  metallic brocade yardage during my 2012 trip to NY and knew from the start it was destined to be made into the Rachel Comey mini from Vogue 1247. Those of you who also follow the magic of Carolyn have likely drooled over her many, many versions of this pattern. It is really one of the most beautifully designed skirts patterns I've encountered. Some clever seaming and construction result in inline pockets along the hip seam. The slightly a-line shape is perfect for a mini. And quite the mini it is.... I did the smallest 1/2" hem I could squeeze out and I still found it borderline immodest. One has to be careful picking things up (bend at the knees Heather, not at the waist!) but that is thankfully aided by wearing black tights.

I only had 2 yds of 35" wide fabric so couldn't really bother with print matching. I think in a pattern this busy it's not the end of the world.

I *may* have bungled the waistband in the back... and I'm not sure how I feel about my lapped zipper. I was out of invisible zips and thought I would try working on my technique, but I think this garment would have been much better served with something less obvious.

The fabric felt quite stiff when I bought it but softened substantially when I washed it. I was nervous about it being too drapey, so underlined it with cotton batiste and serged all my seams. It got a lot of wear at the end of the summer, including a long day fabric shopping in the Garment District when I was back again in NY in September (felt apropos to be wearing something I had made from my last trip there). Unfortunately the brocade gets snagged easily. As much as I love it, I'm not sure this lovely lady will stand the test of time.

I've put on a little weight in the last few months so while the size 12 fit perfectly initially, it is now a little lacking in the ease department. I made another one I will share shortly that I let out a little in the waist and it is much less likely to get unbuttoned when I am sitting at my desk, trying not to think about the cookies for sale in the cafe downstairs.

Back to sweet potatoes and afghans. Hope you beauties are enjoying the season change more than I. If anyone has any tips for getting out of this lazy funk that doesn't involve "exercising" or "cutting out sugar", I would be eternally grateful.

SALLIE SILK PART DEUX

Remember my hand-painted silk dress I posted a few weeks ago? Well, there is more to the story.

Not only did Sallie send me 5 yards of hand-painted gorgeousness, but ANOTHER, extra BONUS 5 yards of a neon-y green silk crepe. It was her first pass at dying the body of the silk and it came out too bright so she started over again. So honey pie sent me the too-bright silk along with the the handpainted stuff.

An embarrassment of riches.

I had bought the Cascade skirt pattern from Megan Nielson early in the summer with the intention of making it out of something airy-fairy-beautiful, so the Sallie neon silk was delivered at precisely the right time. I actually made the skirt a while before I started on the dress as I wanted to practise working with the fabric when the stakes weren't as high.

I love, love, LOVE this pattern - very few pattern pieces and it's super fast to assemble. The effect is so ethereal and delicate. The way the edges seem to scallop gives it a sculptural element and when made from a lightweight material it floats like gossamer when you walk the street. The summer of 2013 was all about floaty, airy things apparently.

The only issue I have with this make is the translucency of the silk. This material really needs to be lined but this pattern is not a good candidate for it due to the high-low hem and the wrap front. I've been wearing it with an old slip, one that I plan on replacing with a new one made from stretch silk charmeuse to be purchased in NY this weekend.

Oh yes. Speaking of Sallie, and New York.... using all my powers of persuasion, I somehow convinced her to meet me in NYC this weekend! We are finally going to meet in person after years of pen-palling and I couldn't be more excited. I love platonic romance. Can't wait for Mood, Marcy, Sonja, Wanette, Milk Bar cookies, the High Line, and those amazing $6 plates of Halal chicken on every corner. I heart NY.

SALLIE SILK IN SHIGAWAKE

Something really, really special came into my life recently. Last month, I opened a package from Texas, filled with 5 yards of hand-painted silk from my beloved Sallie Oh. How did this small miracle come to be? I made an offhand comment about some sort of silk trade after seeing her truly magical Satsuki dress, not really expecting her to actually take me up on the offer. But I guess long-distance pen pal love affairs are the real thing.... She emailed me to tell me she would be happy to watercolour her magic for me. After I stopped hyperventilating,  I sent her ten yards of 16mm crepe de chine from Dharma Trading Co for us to share. A few months later I practically wept when I unwrapped her handiwork.

What I emailed Sallie the day my precioussss arrived....

A light chartreuse with a field of indigo and rose watercolour splotches.... It even has a repeat! So in awe was I, that it sat on a hanger in my studio for over a month, terrifying me. How on earth was I going to get the balls to cut into this fabric, made with such love and skill? It kept me up at night. Sallie and I began to call it the Silk of Intimidation - she had the same fear to make it, worried she was going to disappoint me (FAT EFFING CHANCE MY DEAR).

I had Vogue 8827 in mind from the beginning, but deliberated for weeks about whether I was making the right decision. I had fallen in love with the short sleeved maxi dress when it was released and had been waiting for the right silk to come into my life to make it.

There was not EVER going to be a better silk.

Finally, I marshaled my courage. I made a strong cup of tea and spent over 3 hours meticulously and thoughtfully cutting out my pieces, ensuring the pattern on the silk was distributed as beautifully as possible.

The pattern came together fairly easily, but I took my sweet time assembling it, using only the finest silk pins and french seams. I spent many hours watching Orange is the New Black, making the tiniest, most even hem stitches to fasten the facings down the length of the dress. I widened and lengthened the belt to have more of an obi effect, and angled the corners for a prettier finish. The silk is so fine and light, I have yet to Colombo an ideal way to fasten the wrap from the inside. However, because of the crepe texture, it stays together quite nicely with only the obi keeping doing the work.

The only issue with the dress is that the sleeves are quite narrow - I will have to be very careful wearing it over time as I worry about the stress on the armhole seams. Otherwise, it fits perfectly, feels sinfully good on the skin, and blows in the wind like a prayer.

I spent more time on this dress than I've spent on almost anything I've made yet, wanting it to be as perfect as the silk itself. And when I was finally done, it sat in my closet for weeks. This wasn't a dress I could shoot on my balcony. My Sallie Silk needed a special location - Sallie Silk needed Shigawake.

Last Thursday I made the 11 hour drive to Shigawake, Quebec with the dress fluttering on the garment hook in the backseat of my rented Jeep. It sat there for 3 days while I frolicked with a huge gang of displaced Montrealers in one of the most beautiful places in the world. The Gaspe region is awe inspiring - think New England, but more rugged and elemental, filled with a salt of the earth mix of English and French, living simply surrounded by sea, field and sky. We camped down the road from an agricultural and music fair and spent 4 days swimming in the ocean, romping in waterfalls, drinking in meadows, cooking over a fire, singing in barns, watching the sunrise. On our last full day there, I asked my friend Sean to help shoot the Sallie Silk in the grounds surrounding our campsite. I couldn't have asked for a more beautiful place to document what is easily the most beautiful garment I could ever hope to call my own.

I wove a flower crown out of the banks of wildflowers and tried to embody some sort of wood nymph. It wasn't hard in that golden magic hour light.

This weekend has been so much about gratitude for me. Gratitude to live in this amazing country filled with such kind, good people; gratitude for the inspiring friends (old and new) I get to share this journey with; gratitude for the unspoiled beauty of Canada, which takes my breath away every time I get a chance to explore it; gratitude for this amazing small community of sewists and makers, who are so generous with their time, their skills, their support. Gratitude for Sallie, who feels like a soul sister even though we have never met and live thousands of miles away from each other. Gratitude for this little corner of the internet, where I get to share the things I feel so lucky to be able to make...

Thank you Sallie. Thank you goodness. Thank you life.

CRUSHING ON ANNA

I'm in love. So, so, so in love. With Elisalex and Charlotte from By Hand London, of course. That love affair has been going hard across the ocean all year. But when my Anna dress showed up and I started seeing her in various iterations around the web, I realised I had to make room in my heart for another London girl.

 Anna.... Is this my favourite pattern of all time? It very well might be.

I've been craving a maxi all summer. They are just so damned comfortable and flattering. And there is something so sexily subversive about covering up when most people are letting it all hang out in the heat.

The fabric is a beyond beautiful greyscale digital print, an abstract brocade polyester I've been hanging onto for 2 years, waiting for the right dress to showcase the pattern. Since Anna is so leggy and long, it seemed like it would be a good match with it's vertical panels. I had 3 yards and just managed to squeeze this out. I didn't have the yardage to mess too much with pattern matching but I'm happy with the end result. Super light and drapey with a crepe texture, it moves with the air and walking down the street I feel like a cloud.

It's alllll about that thigh high slit. The cut is flattering but modest and with a flash of thigh while the wind blows your skirt around, you can't help but feel a little vampy.

I've been wearing it endlessly the last few weeks. The fabric is surprisingly un-sheer, which is good - I'm not sure how well it would work lined (it could certainly be done but you would not be able to line it full length. You would definitely see where the lining ends if your fabric is sheer). And oh boy does it sew up fast.... especially when you forgo french seams in lieu of speedy serged ones (will I ever be the sort of sewist who really agonises over the guts? I was so desperate to wear this I couldn't be bothered). I made a straight US size 10 and like all By Hand patterns so far, it fit purrrrfectly.

Love the kimono sleeves, love the bust pleats, love the design lines, love love love everything everything everything. I want to make a hundred. Unfortunately I'm out of appropriately drapey fabrics but rest assured, New York will be supplying me with more Anna fuel for the fire. There is a reason people like Roisin have been making multiples. It's that good. It's also one of the most complimented dresses I've ever worn. The older lady on my office floor who I always meet in the bathroom almost had a heart attack when I told her it was homemade.

Obviously I'm a fan of By Hand London. I've made everything they've released so far. As I've started sewing a lot more from indie companies this year, I've grown to love how each one has its own unique style and point of view. Collette is sweetly vintage; Sewaholic nails wardrobe necessities with a laid back, West Coast attitude; Meghan Neilson seduces with her feminine romanticism. For me, By  Hand is the definition of British cool. A little street, a little sweet, a little edgy - I cannot wait to see what they come up with next.

And guess what? I have a copy of Anna for one of you. The girls at By Hand sent me an extra pattern and it could be yours to vamp in as well. Leave a comment by next Monday and I will choose a winner at random. Extra points to the best youtube clip that includes the words Anna....