Tuesday, April 17, 2012

Sexy, Sleek and Sophisticated

NOT! I think my own personal style has to be the exact opposite of the post’s title. But guess what? I don’t care. The best thing about getting older is that you don’t have to listen to those who are telling you that you aren’t pretty enough, thin enough, rich enough or whatever else enough because, honey, you know that already! And nothing is really going to “fix” it. So you can be immune to their sales pitch. You can get on with your life in whatever way you please. Be happy with what you do have while you’ve got it. Because life is just too damn short.

Whew! Got that off my chest. And in keeping with my usual pas-de-courant fashion, here’s my latest FO:

Bib-Front Shirt

CountryShirtCountryShirt back 

Don’t I look all prairie-girl? OK, maybe prairie-old-lady. I’m not going to repeat all the info I gave in my last post so you’ll have to go there if you need reminding. In a nutshell, I took an already-cut-out ‘90’s big shirt and refashioned it into a better-fitting (if not really much more stylish!) top. After I re-cut I still had to do a bit more tweaking to the shape while sewing, taking in the sides a little more at the waist and sewing a narrower seam at the underarm and back section of the sleeve and tapering to normal seam allowances at the front armscye. My only complaint is that the cuffs are a wee smidgeon tight but not enough that I would take it apart to try to rectify this. I didn’t bother putting a button on the neck band because I never do that one up anyhow! It stands quite nicely without. Now hopefully it will end up getting worn somewhat. Maybe I’ll try it with leggings and my pirate boots. (Avast, me hearties!) Better than sitting around in my drawer for 17 years as fabric scraps, huh?

Next up I’m working on drafting a pattern for something like this:

Navabi tunic

Sorry, I purloined borrowed this pic ages ago from Navabi’s website and of course the link to this garment’s page no longer exists. Fashion moves on! And of course I forgot to note the designer. Bad blogger. I did lighten up the photo some so you can see the details better though.

Anyhow, I liked the two different fabrics aspect of this tunic/dress, the baggy pockets and the bubbled hemline. Instead of black though, I have two red knits, a remnant piece of heavy ribbing and a length of cotton/lycra interlock, plus 6 matching buttons which should work ok. Not the crispy shiny woven fabric of the skirt part in the photo but perhaps a better choice for comfort and easy-care. Currently I’m working on the pockets. They could be weird or they could just make this garment special. We’ll see, won’t we? It’s all an experiment! And I should still have enough of the interlock left afterwards to make a t-shirt.

BTW in case you were concerned, there is nothing illegal or wrong about using another garment as inspiration for your own. Even the “big boys” do this all the time. Indeed the entire clothing industry works this way. You can’t copyright clothing because it’s deemed useful and its decorative function is secondary. At least until the laws are changed, the only time it becomes illegal is if you put someone else’s designer label on it and pass it off as the real thing. Also a fabric’s design itself can be copyrighted. This can be a big issue particularly with quilting and home-dec prints. Though I guess only if you are printing up the fabric commercially using someone else’s design without permission. Kinda out of the league of us home-crafty types. I can’t even copy my own printing and dyeing work. Heh.

1 comment:

"Skipper" said...

Gardening and sewing ... two things I just can't get excited about. But I'm sure glad you do ... I love *reading* about it, and seeing the results. And that IS a great prairie girl look -- nice job!