I’ve just ordered myself a new book. First book about fashion, design, costume, technique, etc. I’ve purchased in what seems way too long. It promises to be a truly wonderful addition to my library.

Madeleine Vionnet, by Betty Kirke, forward by Issey Miyake.

Description: Back in print at last, with a ravishing new cover, ‘Madeleine Vionnet’ is “not only the best book on Vionnet, but perhaps the best book ever on a fashion designer” (Out).

Madeleine Vionnet (1876 1975) was the greatest dressmaker in the world. Considered a genius for her innovations with the bias cut, the most difficult and desirable cut in clothing design, she has a fanatical following. Vionnet was a maverick, her results spectacular. She dressed the stars of the ’30s, invented new pattern-making techniques, and eschewed corsets for her models. Vionnet’s dresses are virtually un-copiable and highly coveted by vintage clothing collectors.

‘Madeleine Vionnet’ is the definitive study of this venerated artist. Illustrated with more than 400 photographs, line drawings, and watercolors, it also includes 38 original patterns for Vionnet dresses.

As the Art Deco Society of L.A.’s newsletter has said, anyone “interested in Art Deco or fashion must have this book.”

While I don’t consider Madeleine Vionnet the “greatest dressmaker in the world”, she is certainly near the top of my ‘favourites’ list, and she’s also one of the main designers that piqued my interest in Art Deco fashion. I was strictly a late (post 1865) Victorian era woman for many, many years.

Below the fold there are some of Vionnet’s designs, clicking the image will take you to their respective museum page. Be sure to check ‘Additional Views’ for more details.

continue reading "Vionnet."

It’s been a while since an update but with good reason. The last few weeks have been spent cutting the strips for each tier to width, folding their edges over in order to iron them to the correct width, hand basting twenty-two strips to each tier then top-stitching each one. I’m not quite finished basting the strips to the bottom tier, but today I need to construct the bodice.

I’m not really looking forward to putting the bodice together. I’ve been waiting because I need to put the zip in as I construct it and the zip extends past the lower edge into the top couple inches of the first tier.

Hopefully I can insert a lapped zip. In order to do a lapped zip I have to leave the bodice in pieces until after the zip is in. Sort of. Kind of. Argh, I’m getting a headache just thinking about it.

Drafting a hem that is longer in the back then the front is slightly more complicated than one would originally think. That’s what the hubby let me know on Friday night at least.

The simple way to draft the hem is to mark the front, the back, then draw a straight line connecting the two as illustrated in the diagram to the right.

However, when done this way the angle of the hem starts centre front and doesn’t allow for a gentle curve. Which is exactly what is wanted/needed.

So, my hubby, brilliant at maths, pulled out equations he uses at work on occasion and calculated how to gently slope my hem for me.

It involved a fair bit of trigonometry (something I haven’t glanced at since grade eleven), plus some advanced trigonometry I’d never used.

When he explains it to me better than he did Friday, I’ll post up the steps for anyone that would like to draft a sloping hem of their very own.

Needless to say, every 4.75″ I’m marking my hem down a little further.

Thank goodness only the top tier has to be angled!

Unless there exist in this world such things as Scientific Calculator Theifs™, I have officially misplaced my scientific calculator. Somewhere in the condo it sits, but where that place is I do not know. I had it last night at around nine PM, but now I do not.

And I have searched every where. Not just places where I might have put it – every where.

Wow, I’m up to six posts about drafting already. No wonder I feel like I’ll never cut into the fashion fabric.

Good news, readers. I have a pattern that almost fits.

Yes, you read that correctly; the pattern almost fits. All I have to do is shorten the bottom and angle the side seams and it is a GO.

I also spent about an hour this morning determining tier lengths. I came up with the following:

Tier One Front Length:

1″ ruffle top + 0.5″ seam allowance + 6/8″ for two channels = 2.25″
13.75″ length + 1.5″ seam allowance = 15.25″

Tier one front length = 15.25″ + 2.25″ = 17.5″

Tier One Back Length:

1″ ruffle top + 0.5″ seam allowance + 6/8″ for two channels = 2.25″
17.75″ + 1.5″ seam allowance = 19.25″

Tier one back length = 19.25″ + 2.25″ = 21.5″

Tier Two Length:

1.5″ ruffle top + 0.5″ seam allowance + 6/8″ for two channels = 2.75″
9.5″ length + 1.5″ seam allowance = 11″

Tier two length = 11″ + 2.75″ = 13.75″

Tier Three Length:

2″ ruffle top + 0.5″ seam allowance + 6/8″ for two channels = 3.25″
4.75″ length + 1.5″ seam allowance = 6.25″

Tier three length = 6.25″ + 3.25″ = 9.5″

The total length of the skirt after it’s sewn will be:

Front: 28″
Back: 32″

I arrived at the lengths by dividing how long I wanted the front length to be by six. Since the tiers shorten as the skirt lengthens, I used 3/6 for the top, 2/6 for the second and 1/6 for the lower.

The width of the first tier will be 3 x 38 (lower bodice circumference) = 114″
The second tier 5 x 38 = 190″
The third tier 4.5 x 38 = 171″

My hips are 51″ so the top tier gives me plenty of room. Also, I’m loving the idea of a skirt with so much twirl!

More math.

I don’t know if I ever mentioned math was one of my least favourite subjects in school. English and music I excelled in, math was a continuous struggle. So you can all imagine how much fun I’m having redrafting (i.e. doing more math) this pattern over and over then over again.

The mathematical equations involved are not necessarily difficult; I learnt them in grade four/five. Addition, subtraction, division. It’s simply that when I have the measurements calculated and find out something has, once again, gone wrong, backtracking, double-checking and the mere thought of redoing makes me want to bang my head on the desk.

Sort of how I feel right now.

Okay. I admit it. I’m stuck.

The tutorial yielded results unusable and my impatience denies me the ability to wait more than a few hours for help before moving forward.

I’m still hoping for help, oh yes, desperately so, in the meantime however, I am going to see if a combination of measurements and brains will let me intuit a pattern draft on my own. No tutorial to aid me.

That’s incorrect. I’ll be using the dart tutorial I posted the other day as a guide for dart placement since when it comes to darts? My cluelessness, let me show it to you.

The measurements I think I will need are laid out on the diagram below:
(one of these days I’ll remember how to insert an image link instead of looking it up each time)

[Images used for measurement chart from PGM Dress Form]

I am fairly certain I can do this. I am also fairly certain the trickiest part, aside from dart placement, will be making the bodice one continuous piece of fabric except where the side zipper joins it. Yes, I want to have a side zip and I have no idea how to draft for one.