#garment construction

[alyctronic]

3 meters of diaphanous and delicate wool and about 10 hours of work to complete this dress.

[deshima]

Years ago, I had the immense luck of finding a genuine seagreen japanese haori in a vintage shop for a ridiculously low price. I did not hesitate to snag it, and it has kept me comfortable through many chilly autumn and early winter evenings.

As far as I can determine it is made of genuine silk and it was constructed in the traditional way aka loosely sewn together with big running stitches so that it can be easily deconstructed, to be washed in pieces instead of as a whole.

Those stitches had been steadily letting go throughout the years and despite the fact I never wore it outside or next to my skin it was starting to smell a bit funky... time to wash it... the traditional way...

First step... unpicking all those seams

From top to bottom, the two sleeves with their lining ( note the bits of facing on the lining near the "cuffs"), the collar,plus the cotton interlining ( the only non silk piece I think), the two small side strips with their lining and then the central body plus its lining.

One of the things that I quickly noticed while unpicking is that how little cutting must have been involved while making this haori.

Haori and kimono are traditionally made out of tanmono, bolts of fabric that are usually 12 m long and between 35 to 40cm wide ( enough for one kimono or two haori). The bolt my haori was made of must have been 35 cm wide.

The fabric is sewn together at the back for width and there has been some cutting done for the neck, collar and side pieces but other wise the only place where the edges are not the selvedges are at the bottoms where the fabric has been cut to make the individual panels for the body and the sleeves

That said, the previous owner of this haori wasn't very tall nor very wide. The back is only 71 cm long and 54 cm wide. On me ( and I am not very tall either) it means it only barely comes to mid- butt while most haori come to mid-thigh and while loose enough this hoari doesn't have the drama of my other haori ( probably a man's) which has a 63cm broad back.

So how did the seamstress manage to reduce a double width of 35 cm to a 54 cm back without cutting off the selvedge and reduce a length of 2m to 71cm front and back ( so only 142cm total)? Well, by having a center seam of 3cm,side seams of 5 cm and doing some clever pleating at the bottoms.

So why all the effort of keeping the selvedges?

One of the reason obviously is that the edges wouldn't fray. The other I think is that this garment was meant to be passed along, and if the new owner was taller and wider than the previous one, the seams could be let out at the sides and at the bottom and you'd only need a new lining.

Another funny thing I noticed when unpicking is that while the outer fabric is the same everywhere, the lining is not. While the whole lining is white at first sight, there were subtle white on white brocade patterns at a closer look, and there were three different motifs.

An abstract swirl pattern at the sleeves, a floral pattern at the top part of the body, and a bishamon kikko pattern at the bottom of the body. Maybe the previous owner was not the first either, and the owner before that was even smaller!

So after unpicking this baby it was time to wash it. Because what edges that had been cut were never finished in any way beyond a bit of pinking I did not dare to put it in the laundry machine even on the gentlest delicate cycle I had for fear of fraying. So hand-wash it was. I used 1 sheet of Cosmeau's wool and silk laundry detergent in a 10 l bucket of luke warm water and set to gentle stir the whole...

whooo boy am I happy I decided to wash this baby because even if I could not really see it, it turned out my haori was one dirty,dirty boy... the smell that came off after even a couple of stirs was pretty disgusting and the water quickly turned a grotty grey. The rinse cycle after also turned fairly grey so I decided that a second wash was necessary

The second wash.

The second wash was only a tiny bit grey and the rinse actually ran clear after that so I squeezed as much water out as I could without wringing and laid out the pieces to dry on towels or on my laundry rack

So now it's a matter of letting it all dry, and hopefully soon, I will have another post detailing the process of (hand)sewing this baby back together

[npcjennaa]

Fashion Trunk Show. Photographs were taken during my time in fashion school.

[flameprincessison]

Two things can be true:

A lightweight cardigan is perfectly fine attire to wear to bed—depending on length and button situation it can even be lingerie by itself. Like, Elphaba’s dainty lacy duster from What is this Feeling? Perfectly fine bed wear:

That said, this chonky single-ply monstrosity is going to pill like a bitch if you do anything more strenuous than have a sneezing fit in it:

[alagaisia]

I do not consider myself experienced or educated enough to be qualified to give sewing advice in most circumstances. But you all have GOT to be sewing your pockets into the waistbands of your garments

Why do I always see pocket patterns that are that dumb little mirten shape. You know the one. Hang on.

(Not calling out anyone in particular, I don’t know the source of this, it was just the first image result).

You’re out here only anchoring your pockets to the side seam opening? On pants and skirts and everything??? What are you going to put in that pocket, paperclips? You can’t put anything substantial in this pocket. It will pull weirdly and mess up the whole line of the garment.

What you want here is a straight line up top, going the whole width of the pocket, and then coming down to meet that lower curve. (I would also lengthen the pocket bag, as a pockets enthusiast, but that’s not the point right now). Line that straight top line up with the top of the fabric when you’re pinning the pocket in place. Sew in the pocket as usual. Then, when you go to attach your waistband, treat the top opening of the pocket as just part of the same fabric as the front of your garment, and sew it in.

Put whatever you want in that pocket. That shit is not going anywhere. It’s not dragging the side of your skirt in weird directions or swinging around when you walk, because now it’s pulling all of its support from the waistband, which is much more stable. Also, the amount of bunching off to the side or turning inside out the pocket is capable of is now super minimized, because it has two sides that are sewn down flat instead of just one.

[hervey-gervey-chip]

fiber arts/historical fashion tumblr please come to my rescue

i've designed a watch coat that i'm hoping to make while i'm unemployed this winter, and am beginning to work on research for what fabrics to use. i'm thinking for the coat itself to either: 1. make it from heavy wool with a cotton lining; or 2. a three-layer quilted situation with some sort of tightly woven wind-resistant fabric for the outer layer, wool for the middle, and a cotton for the inner lining. (all natural fibers obvi) i think the deciding factor is going to be what i can find to be effective as the weather layer of the coat, but i'm having trouble with where to start. i'm aware of moleskin and broadcloth, but research is hard when the majority of results are advertisements. any recommendations for where to find information on historical (or any) natural fiber fabrics and their properties ? i would absolutely not be opposed to reading someone's thesis or sifting through a book, though online resources are preferable.

[ladywaterfall]

“Our shitty construction of garments is a FEATURE actually, if you think that we didn’t hem this dress to cut corners you’re wrong”

[eatingfloorboards]

getting used to sewing tiny stitches in straight lines in such a wild thing like. Looking back at my first project over last summer my stitches were horrible, even when i felt like they were fairly tiny. Like here's what I just sewed today:

Is it perfect? No, but the improvement is insane to my brain because this stitching mentally feels no different than the bigger stitches did, at this point. I've quickly gotten so used to these stitches that they honestly might end up being quicker than the other ones were

(also yes ik i probably should be backstitching but. Let me learn thru experience i suppose)