Aventures in silk...

Probably not what you were expecting from the title, but this is a blog about my working on the designs in my children's wear collection which adults have expressed an interest in. Chief among these is my Rapuru coat, above, which people really like. As do I, but the simple a-line, bat wing sleeve shape does not work for women's styles - perhaps if you are a 1960's Japanese model then it would, but my attempts to copy the design directly just looked like clown outfits at adult size.

 

So we'll keep it for the little ones!

But I have been working on elements of the designs to translate into a jacket for women, namely the big ripple collar. I had the idea of developing the coat with a belt section at the middle which will allow the same pattern to be used for a short and a long jacket. And I also had the idea of making it in lovely Chinese satin. But that's very thin, so I decided to try interlining each panel with fleece fabric. Traditionally  one might use wadding, but this does make for a very thick and bulky effect - think body warmer - so fleece would allow me to interline the sleeves as well.

I had a Kimonii I'd made in Chinese satin, so I sacrificed it in the name of progress. There wasn't enough fabric to make the collar as I wanted, or the sleeves, but I've managed to get the body panels out.

It's given me enough of an idea, and I think that it's worth the investment in fabric to continue - despite the argument the fleece and satin have as they're stitched together, they get on okay when finished, and it'd nice and warm. I even quite like the inside, though I plan to line it, the seams pressed open and stitched down are such a nice finish I am tempted to simply use facings rather than cover them up. If I were being really swish, I would be tempted to use Hong Kong seams, but I'm not that swish!

Today I have been buying fabrics...

I have signed up to do a market with the lovely Designer/Maker people. My first outing with them will be on February 18th 2012, so if you are around and about do come and find me.

With this in mind, I have been buying fabrics from Fabric Land, (worst website, best fabric!) which is where I shall go when I die. I bought a lot of fat quarters, which are 1/4 meter squares of fabric, which they sell in bundles of four, so that each bundle gives you four lovely printed cottons. As I now have a Kimonii pattern for sizes 6-12 months, which can be cut out of one meter of fabric, I shall be making a whole load of these in mixed up printed cottons, so although the colours will match the finished garments will have one side different to the other, creating a (hopefully) delightful rag-bag/vintage look. I am hoping to get them down in price - although fabric is fractionally more expensive that bought on the roll, I can buy a much greater selection of prints than is possible when purchasing whole rolls. By the time I've made 12, I should be pretty speedy also! I can also make my funky Kossack pants with crazy multi-print legs in smaller sizes, all of which will make great gifts.
Anyway, right now they're just delightful bundles of fabrics, so here are some of the colours you can look forward to seeing in February!

Well hello, it's been a while, but it's that time of year - sleeping, eating and hiding from the weather.
But this is also a time to experiment with things, and here are the results - my Lady Kimonii!

The finished article.

Add caption

For the adult version, because I can use tie belts with gay abandon - I have worked out the pattern for jersey fabric, which really makes good use of the designs wrap around style and layering - rather like a wrap dress crossed with a trouser suit!

Oooh look!

An interview about me!

Thank you to Pink leaf designs!

Market ahoy!

It's getting all a bit Albert Square here, but in a much posher way - I am lucky enough to have been given a space at the Jubilee market, Covent Garden, where I shall be asking other people to watch my stall while I get a coffee in Ian's cafe, and selling my hand made and organic cotton kids wear. Prices will be slightly discounted from the website, and I will have market exclusive designs - so if you're in town do pop by and remember, a gift of clothing for the kids is also a gift for hard pressed parents!

Lady Kimonii - experiments!

This week, I have been working on my 'Lady Kimonii' project - to produce my Kimonii design in adult sizes (Somehow saying 'Adult Kimonii) sounds a bit ... dubious, sort of like adult diapers? Anyway...

I found a sari for sale in my local charity shop, it's quite a good one and sometimes has pieces of fabric, and sometimes I find these nice lengths of sari fabric with the sale stickers still intact. This one was a beautiful pink and green, with a lovely gold border.
I was hoping it was more green than pink when I saw it folded up, but it turned out to be more pink than green. The fabric it's self was most odd - sometimes I find sari fabrics to be a little strange in composition, as they are not designed to be cut and tailored as western fabrics are. It had a heavy waft thread, and an almost invisible weft thread, which meant that when it was cut, any pointed shapes such as the crotch shape, were almost fraying out of existence before I could start sewing. I had to over lock every edge of each pattern piece before I could put them together, and although the end result looks good, I don't think that actual sari fabric is the way to go for production - though it's very attractive.

But I am more excited about my next one - a kimonii made from jersey fabric.
If you don't know about these things, jersey or any knit fabric with a stretch can be a bit of a nightmare to sew without the right machines, and I had been advised that what I'd need would be jersey binding to finish the edges.
But that would mean having some made, which would mean an investment I don't have right now, so I decided to think round the issue.
I have never worked in jersey before, so I had to read up a little and then ignore all that and kind of go for it! I put the regular pattern down, sort of blended it together to remove as many of the seams as I could, and reduced it down from a 10 piece pattern to a four piece pattern. I even 'grew' the sleeves on, so that it would eliminate sleeve fitting issues.



This is half way through construction - I decided to not try and hem or turn any of the loose edges but to simple use my over locker to finish the edge and let it ripple where it wants to - in fact, I decided to encourage it to ripple, always believing in making a strength out of a vice as ever!
When putting it together, I over locked the seams together first, then stitched them with a wide stitch afterwards, and it worked really well.

To finish the front edge, I used a grown on facing, and wiggled with delight at my own cleverness by also including a back neck facing to the front facing which I sneaked into position, thus making the whole process much quicker and easier - also removing the need for binding the back neck, way hey!
Anyway - here it is all finished - rippled edges and all -

Black is a wardrobe staple, but it was also the cheapest jersey I could find - however, now I have worked out a few bugs ( crotch depth needed to be dropped by 4 cm, obi belt needed to be shortened and made a little deeper) I shall be looking for a more interesting fabric -


Like this one! Yummy!!!

Lady Kimonii - Threads

Lady Kimonii - Threads

This is just a little blog about my developments with the Kimonii -