Butterick 5211 or Duras Dress

Fabric: Border-print silk charmeuse from Fabric Mart
Lining: China silk
Pattern: Butterick 5211

Butterick 5211

Changes I Made: I lowered front neckline, omitted facings and center back seam, and added lining.

Construction Note: This pattern is simple and easy. Only difficulty I had was making a narrow hem to finish the sleeve opening. I am not really proud of what I had done because I ended up with ripples. I see the same problem at the neck opening also. It looks like the war between me and slippery silk continues… hahaha.          

Inspiration:

When I saw this pattern I immediately thought of The Lover written by Marguerite Duras. It was specifically this part of the book.  Please allow me to quote in Japanese first because I was thinking in Japanese at that time.

「わたしはずっと長いあいだ、わたしだけの服というものをもっていない。わたしの服とは言ってみれば袋のようなもので、母の古い服の仕立て直しだが、その母の服というのもまあ袋のようなものだ。(中略）わたしはこういう服を、袋をかぶるみたいに着て、ベルトを締めてかたちを崩す、と、これでおきまりのわたしのスタイルとなる。」

愛人　マルグリット　デュラス　著　清水　徹　訳

English translation of the same part:

 “For a long time I’ve had no dresses of my own. My dresses are all a sort of sack, made out of old dresses of my mother’s which themselves are all a sort of sack. … I wear these dresses as if they were sacks, with belts that take away their shape and make them timeless.  “

The Lover, Marguerite Duras, Translated by Barbara Bray

Of course the original book is written in French. It is a shame that I do not own it…

More view of Duras dress

"Sack" version:

Side:

Back:

*   *   *   *   *   *

Now, I want to take a moment to say thank you again to Mrs. Mole of fit for a queen for the One Lovely Blog Award nomination! It is truly amazing that a talented person like her (just look at her blog!) thinks my blog is worth the award. (I am trying to pick ten bloggers to pass the awards but, oh boy, it is too difficult!)

I also want to say thank you to Rhonda of Rhonda’s Creative Life for featuring my blog. As many of you probably checked it already, her recent Wednesday Showcase is a wonderful collection of so many talents. If you are new to browsing sewing blogs it is definitely a good place to start.  

Last but not least, thank you to all my readers and blog friends; Thank you so much for visiting and following my blog, kindly leaving your comments, and sharing your world through your blog.

Wishing everyone a wonderful year ahead!   

Love,

Yuki

Miniature Fiber Art - Osechi

This small wonder had just arrived in the mail today.   

It is a miniature Osechi set which my friend found in Japan. Osechi are traditional Japanese New Year foods. You can read about it here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osechi.

It measures only 2" by 2" (5cm by 5cm) !!!

The lid has a traditional design: pine, bamboo, and plum.  

 


All the foods are made from fabric or thread except aluminium foil case. What an intricate detail!
 

 

  



Happy Holidays, everyone!

Just Because It Is No Fun...

... if you neglect necessary sewing, you might get something like this:



This is a couch cushion; One side is opened and fillings are coming out. 

There was a tiny opening between fabric and zipper the other day, but I pretended not to see it. Who knew it would become this mess? 

Usually, the culprit of this kind stuff is Leo, but not this time; He is a rare cat who has no interest in thread or cushion fillings.

Not Me!

It was this one!

Zzzzzz...

Chester is usually a good boy but he loses his control when he sees anything stringy. I guess he pulled all the thread off the zipper and dug the fillings to find more...

... but I am not mad at him. He became seven years old this month. I love that he still has some kitty moment every once in a while. Happy Birthday, Chester!

Now, back to cushion sewing...

Adding Length to a Ruffle Dress

J.Crew Rosalie Twisted Dress

Last week, I bought J.Crew Rosalie dress for my daughter to wear to her Christmas concert. It is a charming dress with alternating cotton knit and silk ruffles.

She is between size 12 and 14 right now. Since size 14 in red was sold out, I ordered size 12. It arrived the night before the concert. Sadly it was too short for her. It hit her mid thigh; There was no way she could wear it to her concert as she had to be seated to play the flute. But we did not find anything good - anything at all - in local stores this year... What to do?

That was when my stash came to the rescue! I had red china silk which was almost a perfect match. 

First off, I examined the dress; I immediately noticed that all ruffle edges were unfinished. I liked it because I knew it would make my job easier.

I decided to add two 3.5"-width ruffles. Here is how I drew the ruffle pattern. It may not be a proper way of drafting, but hey, it worked! By the way, by skirt hem length I meant the length of the hem of one side of skirt.  

I knew my daughter had a compass somewhere in her room but I could not find it. :( So I wrapped a ribbon around the pencil and taped it. Ta-da! An instant compass! I cut out one circle out of tissue paper and taped it to the dress as a test.

Leo approved!





I rounded the edges of the ruffle pattern. Then I cut two ruffles out of china silk and attached them to the hem, overlapping each edge. I hand-sewed so that it would be easier to remove the ruffles before I donate the dress in the future.  

On the side note, ironing this dress drove me crazy! If you have to iron this dress, I suggest using steam on silk setting and hovering the iron just above the fabric.  

Adding length to the dress by attaching ruffles was a success! My daughter could wear it to the concert last night. I must say she was very pretty in this dress and played the flute so beautifully.