Tag: Stitch: Clothing

Channeling my inner Scarlett

~ Liz A ~ 25 Comments

Gone with the Wind is definitely not PC these days, but when I was a teenager my mom urged it on me, saying it was a classic. How well I remember reading it in the backseat of our car during a road trip to see what all the fuss was about. “Not much,” was my dismissive opinion.

That said, it was a semi-big deal in 1976 when it finally aired on TV and I got to see the movie version for the first time. I still gave it a “not much” rating, but thankfully it primed me to more fully appreciate Carol Burnett’s skit Went with the Wind, in which she parodied Scarlett’s drapery-inspired gown.

All of which has everything to do with the latest iteration of the boho blouse …

Since I was having trouble with the patchplay version, I decided to try out the pintucks on some vintage cloth that had been packed and moved five times. Purchased in 1980, there were two yards of it left over after I sewed curtains for the living room picture window in our very first house. Finally, it has found its reason for being.

I’m pretty sure it’s 100% cotton and it needles like an absolute dream …

My fingers are grateful … stitches are a cinch when the cloth isn’t clogged with excess dye and whatever else it is they use to finish fabric these days. Now if I could just figure out where to find more 40 year old cloth.

And while I’m looking back, here’s what we had for lunch today …

The backstory is my fond memory of 1974 shopping trips to Bloomingdale’s in Garden City (Long Island, NY), with my friend Rachel. We must have eaten at their in-store restaurant more than once, because I have a very clear recollection of Croque Monsieur being a favorite.

The version I whipped up today might better be called a Monte Cristo, as it had a distinctly Italian vibe. Lest I forget, it consisted of crusty Italian White Bread from Central Market in Austin, thin slices of Speck (a smoked version of prosciutto), leftover zucchini butter (from this Smitten Kitchen recipe), lots of shredded parm (regretfully not Reggiano … this time), all dipped in beaten egg and griddled in melted butter. Oh, and we did dab on a bit of basil vinaigrette at the table because there was some of that leftover, too.

Yum.

Patchplay reimagined

~ Liz A ~ 23 Comments

While waiting for some books to come in from the library to inform my nascent knowledge of handsewing, I decided to just play around.

Yesterday I tried my hand at pintucks …

and today I pulled out a tub of clothing with the unifying characteristic of being made from sheer cloth. While some of it came from the thrift store, most of it came from my closet and my daughter’s closet. Which is to say, it never made it to the thrift store …

I’m not much for the terms “needlework” and “patchwork” when it comes to the “work” part … I’m more about playing around with cloth.

So I have an idea to make a boho shirt. At first I imagined doing it in patched squares, but that sounded too much like … uh, work. So I decided instead to randomly tear long strips of sheer cloth and patch them together …

with the result being this after a morning’s worth of playing around …

A little shy on length, but that should be fixable.

Then I saw this on my Instagram feed …

Exactly what I’m talking about … except my vision is a lot shorter and has sleeves … ha!

Synchronicity

~ Liz A ~ 28 Comments

I had to smile when Deb G posted about handsewing a linen top. Just one day before I had gotten a notion to try handsewing a shirt, thinking perhaps the reason I’ve long avoided garment making was simply an aversion to machine sewing.

What little I knew about making clothing involved going to a fabric store, picking out a pattern and buying cloth. So that’s where I started … gasping when I learned a Simplicity pattern would set me back $20.

And here’s where I ended up …

I honestly enjoyed the process (more about that in a minute), but I quickly realized how very much more I needed to know than what was included in the written pattern instructions, which were absolutely mute on anything to do with hand sewing.

So I went back to Deb G’s post and started digging for books and online videos about hand sewing garments. Then decided in the meantime to work with what I had in order to have a foundation on which to build more knowledge.

Here I pause to confess that handsewing a shirt was not a new notion. Some years back, while reading up on Georgia O’Keeffe, I learned that she was an accomplished seamstress. At the time I thought it would be incredibly cool to make some of the same clothing that she wore … a crisp white linen shirt perhaps. But I came up empty when I tried to find a pattern and that’s where I left it.

Anyway, I started my recent quest with unbleached cotton muslin and quickly realized I wouldn’t be following the recipe dictated by the pattern when it called for fusible interfacing. Bah! I couldn’t see any reason for that, so I simply stitched the front facing without it …

I batted .500 when it came to the shoulder and sleeve seams (definitely my untidiest outcome) …

Patted myself on the back for coming up with a sturdy solution to the split side seams …

And likewise cobbled my way to a cuff that wasn’t at all like the simple hem called for in the pattern directions …

Now I’m impatiently waiting for books to arrive in hopes they will take me to the next level. Already I’m envisioning a flannel nightshirt and a pintucked boho patchwork smock.

And and and … what fun!