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.

Yesterday I posted a brief outline of the Oscar de la Renta gown project I’ve decided to tackle.

It contains a couple of firsts for me as a sewer; pattern drafting, ruching (ruched, not gathered, apparently), sewing many long strips of fabric onto a base and making a Venetian camica.

I have coffee, required measurements, calculator, pencil, eraser, music playing and ferrets to keep me company. I am all set for an afternoon of The Mathematics of Pattern Drafting; Take One.

Gratuitous pictures of Helper Ferrets! Click pictures for bigger.

[All images are clickable.]

When I created this blog it was meant to be a showcase of my writing because I was giving very serious thought to pursuing a career in online freelance. The idea fizzled out and a little over a year ago my passion for sewing kicked in with fervour.

Perhaps in the future I’ll write a post about my love of sewing, how it came to be and how its grown over time.

Today’s post is about a newly planned project; my very own Oscar de la Renta dress. Or rather a remake of one courtesy of Don over at Weekend Designer.

At first glance the dress only involves doing one thing I haven’t done before – drafting a pattern from scratch. Except I never really do things the easy way and upon closer inspection I discovered putting the dress together is going to be more work then initially expected.

The dress in question looks like this:

Images from Net-A-Porter

And the instructions from Weekend Designer are here.

continue reading "My very own Oscar."