Skip to main content

An outside dress

I know that lots of people take sewing clothing as a serious endeavor. I don’t. For me, making a garment is a little like doing a doodle, but in fabric.
During Passover, I took this book out of the library .
I took it out, mostly, so my library would see that there is a demand for sewing books and hopefully order more sewing books for the collection. It’s not a bad book.In addition to lots of instructions for sewing with a pattern, there were also some nice garment diagrams. One of the diagrams that looked worth trying out was one for a raglan sleeved peasant dress. 51RCBUnfLjL__SL500_AA300_I had just ordered a mystery bundle from http://www.fabricmartfabrics.com/. One of the goodies in the bundle was this rayon abstract print. I thought that the drapey rayon abstract print would be perfect for attempting the dress.

Using my serger, the dress came together really quickly. I decided to use a fairly wide ( 1/2 inch) elastic at the neck. I had seem some of the Japanese sewing magazines using a wider than one would expect elastic and I liked the look. I also had a package of 1/2 inch wide elastic handy.
100_1435

Like many peasant dresses, the dress was pretty shapeless.  I have found that the more shapeless the dress, the more shapeless I look in it. So I made four fish-eye darts in the front, and four in the back. I then put the dress away.
When I finish a dress I’m often not sure if it is just a hanging around the house dress or one to wear out and about. I had a couple of appointments out of the house yesterday. I still wasn’t sure about the dress, so I  belted it and threw a grey raincoat over it. I figured that if it was a bad dress, I would soon figure it out.

One of my errands was at Metro Textile.  Metro is run by Kashi, an opinionated  Iranian who came to the states right after the Shah was ousted from power. As soon as I walked in, Kashi began complimenting me on the dress. I guess the dress is a wear out of the house sort of a dress.

I realize that this dress is also influenced by the exhibit I saw with my friend Carol, at FIT. The exhibit was about Japanese fashion. Those all black, austere shapeless garments from the early 1980's just looked so good. This dress reminds me of the knock offs of those dresses that I remember from those years.

The book, not one I need to own at the moment, but a useful book.
Labels:

Comments

  1. SandyMay 3, 2011 at 5:43 PM

    okay. I can see why the compliments! and especially peeking out from under a grey raincoat.
    I am sure this would be just the thing to wear on a grey day in New York! I am also sure Kashi was probably relieved to see someone appreciated a bit of colour.
    Sandy in the UK

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousMay 5, 2011 at 2:00 AM

    This is a fantastic dress and you looked terrific in it Monday night!

    Judith Atkinson

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

I love hearing from my readers. I moderate comments to weed out bots.It may take a little while for your comment to appear.

Popular posts from this blog

Connecting with the past

A few months ago I had a craving for my father’s chicken fricassee.  If my father were still alive I would have called him up and he would have talked me through the process of making it.    My father is no longer alive so I turned to my cookbooks and the recipes I found for chicken fricassee were nothing at all like the stew of chicken necks, gizzards and wings in a watery sweet and sour tomato sauce that I enjoyed as a kid.  I assumed that the dish was an invention of my father’s. I then attempted to replicate the dish from my memory of it and failed.   A couple of weeks ago I saw an article on the internet, and I can’t remember where, that talked about Jewish fricassee  and it sounded an awful lot like the dish I was hankering after. This afternoon I went to the butcher and picked up all of the chicken elements of the dish, a couple of packages each of wings, necks and gizzards. My father never cooked directly from a cook book. He used to re...
1 comment
Read more

The light themed tallit has been shipped!!!

 I had begun speaking to Sarah about making her a tallit in the middle of August. It took a few weeks to nail down the design. For Sarah it would have been ideal if the tallit were completed in time for her to wear it on Rosh HaShanah., the beginning of her year as senior rabbi of her congregation. For me, in an ideal world, given the realities of preparing for the High Holidays I would have finished this tallit in the weeks after Sukkot. So we compromised and I shipped off the tallit last night.  I would have prefered to have more time but I got the job done in time. This tallit was made to mark Sarah's rise to the position of senior rabbi but it was also a reaction to this year of darkness. She chose a selection of verses about light to be part of her tallit. 1)  אֵל נוֹרָא עֲלִילָה  God of awesome deeds ( from a yom kippur Liturgical poem) 2)  אוֹר חָדָשׁ עַל־צִיּוֹן תָּאִיר   May You shine a new light on Zion ( from the liturgy) 3)  יָאֵר יְהֹ...
8 comments
Read more

A Passover loss

 My parents bought this tablecloth during their 1955 visit to Israel. It is made out of  linen from the first post 1948 flax harvest. The linen is heavy and almost crude. The embroidery is very fine. We used this cloth every Passover until the center wore thin.  You can see the cloth on the table in the background of this photo of my parents and nephew My Aunt Sheva bought my mother a replacement cloth. The replacement cloth is made out of a cotton poly blend. The embroidery is crude and the colors not nearly as nice. The old cloth hung in our basement. We used the new cloth and remembered the much nicer original cloth. I loved that my aunt wanted to replace the cloth, I just hated the replacement because it was so much less than while evoking the beauty of the original. After my father died my mother sat me down and with great ceremony gave me all of her best tablecloths. She also gave me the worn Passover cloth and suggested that I could mend it. I did. Year after year ...
2 comments
Read more