Little Black Dress

A couple of months ago, I needed a dress for the Musical Awards Gala. I thought it was the right time to make a dress for which the design had been stuck in my head for ages. It started with seeing the Audrey Hepburn movie Sabrina. The costumes for that movie had been designed by Hubert de Givenchy. One of the dresses worn by Audrey Hepburn is a classic little black dress, with the hourglass shape I love so much. So I got inspired to design my own version of it.

So this is the dress that inspired me:

I especially love the neckline, the slim waist and the wide skirt. I am the proud owner of a waist like this, and I like to accentuate it with my clothes.

So here’s the front of my own version:

 

It obviously doesn’t fit my mannequin as well as it fits me, even though I’m very close in size to my mannequin. This might look like a very plain dress for a gala. I’m sure people might have thought this when I was wearing it. But then I turned around and revealed this:

I’m very proud of this back. It is extremely deep, all the way to my waist and has a fake button closure (it’s sewn together, so the buttons can’t be opened.) I quite like my back, it’s very toned from years of ballet and I like showing it off like this. I wear a petticoat underneath, it looks best with the skirt a bit poofy. If I may say so myself, the dress looks stunning on me and I really hope I get to wear it again some time soon. I wish I had taken pictures when I was wearing it, I felt so pretty!

Now before the questions start coming, I will NOT make this dress for anyone else. This is a design that’s just for me. I don’t know if I can really call this my own design, as it was so heavily inspired on the Givenchy dress. The shoulders straps are different, the back is my own design but other than that it’s not that different. But it doesn’t matter anyway as I won’t be making any for sale.

2010
12/27
CATEGORY
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My Christmas project

 

This will be my Christmas project: a Victorian corset. I have a two week break of Christmas and this seems like the perfect thing to do when it’s too cold to go outside.

I have to start with a muslin, something I usually never do. The reason why you have to make a muslin for a corset, is to determine the length of the busk and boning. Once I get that done I can order everything I need online: busk, boning, grommets, awl,  corset lacing, twill tape, bias tape. I want to finish it with lace beading and ribbon trim, white and blue like the right picture.

I haven’t quite decided yet which corset I’ll make, the Dore corset or Silverado corset (with bust gores). As usual, I’ll have to adapt the pattern to my measurements, with my bust measurement being somewhere between  size 10 and 12 and my waist measurement between 6 and 8. I think it’s incredible that even with patterns that are designed for an hourglass shape, I’m still too hourglass! 

I usually never read the sewing instructions, I don’t need them and I draft most of my own patterns anyway. I will need them this time, there seem to be so many steps!

I’ll be sure to post about my progress.

2010
12/19
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The Jane Austen Handbook

As a massive Jane Austen fan, I decided to spoil myself with this gorgeous little book a while ago. It tells you everything you might want to know about how to live in Jane Austen’s day: how to write a letter, get you daughters married off and how to get rid of unwanted company (certainly a skill still needed in this time).

But the chapter I want to talk about is called How to Become an Accomplished Lady. In those days, being an accomplished lady increased you chances on the marriage market. To be accomplished, you needed to acquire certain skills. Let’s see how accomplished I would have been in those days.

1) Study several languages. Check, I think 5 languages would quite suffice.

2) Acquire a basic grasp of geography and history. Check, being a history teacher, I think I acquired more than a basic grasp.

3) Become a proficiant musician. Check. Being able to play the piano and sing was expected of a lady, though I seriously doubt cello would have been considered an appropriate instrument for a lady, considering the position the cello is played in.

4) Draw or paint the picturesque.  Okay, not really. An accomplishment that I lack.

5) Master the art of needlework. Check and double check. In those days though, I’d have to sew by hand. But I can knit, sew and embroider, enough for any genteel lady (who can get the more tedious sewing done by her servants).

6) Learn to dance gracefully. Check again. Yes I can do some of those regency dances, when performing in a period play, one picks up a thing or two. Ballet of course helps with the posture expected of a young lady (no doubt the corset did its work in that area as well).

Conclusion, in Jane Austen’s day, I would have been a very accomplished lady, very eligible to young gentlemen. Nowadays, I’m just a weirdo with completely unnecessary skills, and not quite what men are looking for. I think I’ve been born in the wrong era…

2010
11/19
CATEGORY
Books
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The leotard repair action

Starting ballet again after quite a while meant having to dig up my leotards from a drawer. In that entire drawer of dance things, I found out only one leotard in a wearable state. Now leotards are rather expensive little things, and I’m a thrifty person by nature so I started a big leotard repair action.

Leo 1: straps were way too long, so I made them about 6 cm shorter.

Leo 2: 2 holes, thanks to my cat who thinks leotards are a yummy snack. I repaired one by hand, and as the other one was in the side seam, I just took in the seam a bit.

Leo 3: the stitching at the edge had come undone, so I redid it with my wonderful coverstitch machine. I’m finally getting the hang of that thing.

Leo 4: nothing wrong with it really, but it lacked lining or a shelf bra. Imagine having to jump in an unlined and unsupported leotard: not at pretty sight! So I cut up an old pair of tights which I sewed into the top for some added support. The waistband is now serves as the elastic on the edge of the shelf bra.  Now it’s a perfectly supportive  (and adorable) leotard.

I usually don’t like jobs like this and put them of as long as I can. But I can’t do with one leotard for 3 classes a week so I was basically forced to get it done. And really, except for the added shelf bra, each leotard took me 5-10 minutes.

Next ballet project is a short wrap skirt and perhaps some shorts. But they’ll have to wait a bit more, I have some much needed street clothes next in line to be made.

2010
11/17
CATEGORY
Sewing
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The dance bag

Or more correctly said: the dance/musical theatre bag.

Ta da!!

As I dance 5 days a week, there’s a lot of stuff I need to carry around daily. Not every class is the same, so I need different things every day. But I’m too lazy to take everything out every day and put in the correct stuff, as you can be sure I arrive in jazz class with pointe shoes, and in ballet without tights or something like that.

You might be thinking now: you don’t need that much for dance/musical theatre class. Wrong!! Here’s the list:

ballet shoes
pointe shoes
jazz sneakers
toe pads/tape/spacers
socks
knee pads
hair pins/rubber bands/hair nets
water bottle
sheet music
script
notebook/pens
deodorant
whatever clothes I need: leotard/tights/shorts or jazzpants/tanktop
lunch (on Saturdays)

See, plenty of stuff to be dragged around. I hadn’t really a good bag to put all that stuff in, so as a creative person does, I decided to make one myself. I asked on the Sancho forum who knew a good pattern, and was provided by a member (thank you Muisje!) with the Amy Butler Weekender Travel Bag pattern. I’m not really into bag making, I prefers making clothes, so this was quite new to me. I must say I find it more work than for example making a coat or dress. A bag needs to be firm, so it involves a lot of interlining. All that interlining, plus the piping, makes for bulky seams and hard sewing.

As usual I couldn’t just keep to the pattern and I added 2 zipped inner pockets and a shoulder strap. One pocket is for all the little stuff like toe pads and tape, the other for keys/wallet… The shoulder strap is padded and detachable (doesn’t that sound really fancy, just like a commercial) so I can carry it across my chest when riding my bike to the dance studio.

The outside fabric is a sturdy printed cotton, the inside black canvas. The only thing I still have to do, is make the false bottom. Something sturdy needs to put in it and I was advised to put a plastic placemat in. But the bag is wider than the average plastic placemat, so I have to go find something else to put in it.

Though I put a lot of interlining in, it’s not quite as firm as I would like, but I think it turned out quite nicely. Now it’s ready to be abused 5 days a week. Here’s another picture with the bag opened.

2010
11/14
CATEGORY
Sewing
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Music

Things will get fun here, I just found out how to put up youtube videos. That means you’ll all get to enjoy the music I love (how great is that!) As I already said, I love musical theatre. I absolutely adore it. But not every kind of musical theatre, it has to touch me. The musicals I do not like are things liks Disney’s Beauty and the Beast. Sure, I’ll go and watch them when they’re in town (it’s not like we usually get a lot of musicals here). And I just adore the movie. But on stage, it’s simply not the thing for me, they don’t touch my heart. I don’t like happy endings either (except in Jane Austen books).

A good musical makes me cry. Les Misérables is a good example (everytime someone dies, which is very often), Aida (my God, endless tears) or Daens (very dramatic Belgian story). Or makes me laugh (Hairspray certainly does that, Mamma Mia as well). Or scares me to death (Dans der Vampieren, not fun to have a vampire hanging over your chair!) As long as it touches me and moves me, I’ll love it!

So let’s start with one that makes me cry: the finale of Les Misérables. Jean Valjean is dying and is praying (right, prayers in musicals always do it as well, a prayer is usually the most beautiful song in a musical). So anyway, Vanjean then sees the deceased Fantine and Eponine again. You can’t really see how  it’s usually staged, but the music is more beautiful than ever. Take a tissue before you press play!

Btw, I do NOT cry when Javert  dies.

2010
11/06
CATEGORY
Music
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New blog

Here I am with a new blog.  I already have a blog, but as that one is only about The Little Dressmaker, my small collection of 50′s clothing, I decided to start another one, not about my clothes but about anything else in my life. That may be whatever I’m sewing at the moment. It may be about the million other things I do in my spare time, or just my reflections on life and the world.

I do realise I am writing in English here, though my native language is Dutch. I just felt like doing a blog in English. Anybody I know here in Belgium can read it, but that means my friends in the US, Germany or Russia also can. I used to live in the wonderful Seattle (or at least near it), I still miss it dearly, and I still consider English my second native language.

About those million other things I do, I seem to have more than 24 hours in a day. I work, of course, as a Dutch and history teacher. But when I come home, I have an entire list of other activities. I sing and dance a lot. A LOT! About 5 days a week I have dance class, voice lesson, or musical theatre class to go to. I confess, I love musical theatre. Nearly any kind of theatre really. So reviews every now and then are to be expected. 

As just singing and dancing could never be enough for me, I take cello lessons as well. I find it a calming instrument, as well as a slighly melancholic one, which completely suits my character. I also play the piano, but I’m done studying that so I only play on my own a bit. Wouldn’t miss it for the world, the piano has been a part of my life for many years (though my former piano teacher would kill me if she knew the disastrous level of my technique at the moment)

Sewing is not my only crafty skill, I love knitting as well. I don’t knit nearly as much as I sew, but I found 2 wonderful patterns I want to knit this winter, and besides, I’m about to mentor a charity project of one of my classes which will involve a lot of knitting. More about that later!

So welcome to my busy and creative life. I hope you enjoy the ride!

2010
11/06
CATEGORY
Uncategorized
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