The Hem-isphere Project: The Parisienne Blouse

So here it is: my answer to Round 2 of Cecile and my Hem-isphere project. If you require or would like an update about why we chose what project starting points we sent each other for this round, please check this post. In short, the theme was 'Parisienne' and this is what I received from Cecile:

The package contained some black and white striped drapey synthetic crepe, some facetted black buttons and a 1970s Simplicity tunic sewing pattern. 

Pattern Description:

I decided not to go with the pattern Cecile included in the package. I really liked the style but it didn't look like it would a cardigan would fit over those loose sleeves very well. I hadn't yet found the right fabric to try out Simplicity 2601 (pictured below), but when I saw the black and white stripey stuff Cecile sent, I thought now might be a good opportunity. I think this pattern has a timeless look to it, it seems simultaneously retro and contemporary, which seems very much in-keeping with the Parisienne vibe. I chose the collared neckline and the short puff sleeves but omitted the sleeve band ties. 

Did it look like the photo/drawing on the pattern envelope once you were done sewing it?

Is it arrogant to say that I think mine looks better?! Better than the version in the envelope photograph anyhow. I was warned that this pattern sits very high up on the waist, but considering I have a high natural waist it sat well on me.  

Were the instructions easy to follow?


Yep. Although I went a bit off-piste in a hurry to move this project forward and had to go back and re-do a couple of steps. 

What did you particularly like or dislike about the pattern?


I feel it's quite a deceptively simple pattern. I guess it's the midriff band, which is self-faced, and the button placket fastening that makes the pieces add up and makes the cutting out stage may never end! I like how well is works with the application of piping, although this added A LOT of time required to get this project done, which has left Cecile twiddling her thumbs for me to wrap up Round 2 of our project.


I dislike how the button placket finishes quite high leaving an opening right where I feel most conscious: my belly! I usually wear a vest under tops anyhow because I'm always chilly, but a vest underneath this blouse will be compulsory.   

Fabric Used:


The thin stripey crepey stuff previous described. It has a lovely drape which I thought would work week for the gathered bust are of the upper bodice and the skirt section. However, something less fine and floppy would have been nicer to work with for the sections that require interfacing or doubling up, and the thinness also posed quite a challenge when applying the piping. I took my time though, discovered new reserves of patience and made it work the best I could. 


I was pleased that this panelled pattern allowed me to play with the direction of the stripes. The result is more evident when you see the blouse in the flesh as the fine stripes in the photos do that strange TV thing.     

Pattern alterations or any design changes you made:


Normally, the standard changes I make to sewing patterns are raising the waist line and adding more width at the hips. Neither of those were necessary in this pattern so the only pattern change I made was to redraft the sleeve band. The design changes were the addition of piping and altering of grain lines to create different directions for the stripes.

Would you sew it again? Would you recommend it to others?

Umm, yep I would make this again but in quite a few years time as I have a stack of other blouse patterns still to try. It might be cool to try it with a contrast fabric for the collar, sleeve bands and midriff section, perhaps a floral with a solid for the rest of it. I'd like to see that. Yes I would recommend it to others, but I would alert them to its high-waistedness and belly-gap!

Conclusion:


I'm not sure quite how close this final blouse remains to the initial vision of 'Parisienne' Cecile held. However, taking the inspirational starting word or phrase and then the materials each other has provided, and then running with them in whatever direction feels right is a big part of the actualisation of this project. So whatever the look and form of the final garment, as long as it exists then it has been a successful round. Plus I have already worn this blouse twice in real life and it was very comfortable and lovely to wear. So if that isn't the definition of a successful creation, then I don't know what is! 

A massive thanks to Cecile for creating these darling little Hem-isphere Project labels to put in our creations from this project! They make the garment super-special!

The Hem-isphere Project: Round 2 'Parisienne' Packages

As you may know, this year I am undertaking a sewing-related project with super-talented sewing blogger Cecile from Sewing and so on. (By the way, have you SEEN her new nautical dress?! I'm currently crippled by envy.) Every two months we will send each other a package of goodies, some or all of the contents of which will form the starting point for a sewing project. In January we sent each other these packages and by the end of February we had produced these garments.

The last round (Round 1) had no theme, but we intend to attribute a topic, idea, film, song title, quote, or whatever else to each subsequent round to inspire the choices of package contents. I was nominated to come up with the theme for Round 2, and I came up with 'Parisienne'. Cecile lives in Réunion, a French province in the Indian ocean. With the linguistic and cultural links to France, I was really interested in what she would come up with. Paris is also a city I am fascinated and inspired by and am lucky enough to have been a few times.

So what does 'Parisienne' mean to me? Each time I've been to Paris, it's been cold, grey and often raining. And very beautiful. The ornate, stone architecture is so stunning, and the awesome cafes are so inviting. But I am also aware of a coldness and aloofness; of decades of luxury, privelege and elitism.

And luxury is so evident: understated but always visible. Paris expects the finer things in life, everyday. Where else could you enjoy such incredible Art Nouveau iron work free of charge, as part of the metro system no less?! Why not make your daily commute a more beautiful experience?

So how did I translate that into my choices for the contents of Cecile's package?

My package to Cecile:

It contains a piece of beautiful cotton sateen that's been in my stash for years. I never came up with a use for something as fine and subtle as this! It's background is dark grey, which nicely reflects my memories of soggy Paris pavements. Plus it has an ivory print that is both geometric and floral, and some of the shapes I feel happily resemble some of the Art Nouveau iron work curves and shapes that form those Metro entrances.

Along with the fabric, I've included a length of delicate vintage lace and some small mother of pearl buttons. To me, including those elements reflects the kind of 'subtle luxury for everyday' that I sense in Paris. The kind of mentality that might ask 'Why use cheap or poor quality trim or buttons on a garment, when something timeless and special is available?'.

Cecile's package to me:

She has sent me a lengthy of lovely, drapey white fabric with fine black stripes, a cute 1970's tunic/dress sewing pattern and some faceted black faux-jet buttons. I'm really excited about the contents and, having dwelled on it for a week, I know exactly what I plan to do with this project!

Look what Cecile also sent me:

To commemorate the first round of this project, she made a darling collage of herself in her handmade outfit, featuring the top that was born from the first package I sent her!

Let Round 2 commence....

The Hem-isphere Project: Round 1 Results

Woo hoo!!!! The first round of the Hem-isphere Project is complete and Cecile and I are ready to share the results. A quick reminder of what Cecile's package to me contained: a vintage blouse pattern, length of beige lace, sequinned anchor applique and vintage belt buckle (all pictured below).

Well, having received this in early January, I've had about six weeks to whip up a garment using any of the contents, or a combination of them. Here's my finished garment:

The sewing pattern had a couple of my favourite mid-century vintage elements (kimono sleeves and a Peter Pan collar), so it was kind of a given that I would use that part. Because the pattern was designed for teenagers, it had woefully insufficient accommodation for lady-hips. Instead of spending ages trying to adapt and toile the pattern, I opted to frankenstein the top part of this pattern with the bottom part of the Sencha blouse pattern. I also widened the neck hole a bit because the original was life-threateningly small!

I then omitted the neck facings and overlocked the collar pieces on and then stitched the small neck seam-allowance down. This is a bit of a nuaghty treat, but time is somewhat of the essence at the moment! The fit needed a little adjusting and I took it all in along the side seams through to the end of the sleeves, but the ease of that is one of the many joys of mid-century kimono sleeves!

I was originally planning on making this top from a thrifted dress which would have worked really well with the beige lace which I hoped to incorporate. But the old dress, although pretty large, wasn't big enough fabric to fit the pattern pieces on so I opted for this fine blue cotton that I scored from the lovely Julia at the recent De-Stash Meet-Up.

The blue fabric lent itself naturally (to my mind) towards a nautical theme, which meant the anchor applique deployment was an obvious step. As everyone knows, a nautical theme cannot work properly without some red thrown in there! So I decided to make the collar stand out a bit from the blouse bodice by using ric-rac as piping around the collar edges. I've never tried this before but have always loved it when I've seen ric-rac used in that way. I already had the ric-rac in my stash and it was pleasingly easy to apply in this fashion. The result was better than I had expected and I'll definately use this techinique again in future makes. I could have applied the anchor in a more traditional placement on the bodice, but I had concerns about the fineness of the fabric being weighed down. Plus the fabric creases easily so an appliqued detail might prevent effective ironning after washing. I opted to put the anchor on the collar instead, which actually seems to me the kind of placement a 1950s lady might have gone for herself!

So there you have it! My first completed garment for the Hem-isphere project. I'm really loving this project so far. Normally I think a project through from beginning to end before physically touching anything. So it was exciting to have the initial elements chosen for me, and I was forced to be more relaxed about this creation than my usual approach. The result is very wearable, and I can't wait for it to get warm enough to wear this out (and not covered up under ten cardigans!).

So, what did Cecile make from the package I sent her?!:

A wonderful loose blouse. I love how the check of the fabric changes to diagonals where she has cut the collar piece on the bias. We'll all have to head over to her blog to read more about this lovely creation.

Introducing the Hem-isphere Project!!!

I am very excited to present to you a new project I'm involved in this year, which hinted at in my plans for 2012 post before the details were finalised. Well, now they are; Every other month throughout 2012, I will be exchanging packages with lovely sewing blogger Cecile from Sewing and so on. The packages will contain surprise starting points to inspire sewing creations. Cecile lives in sunny La Reunion in the Southern Hemisphere, I live in the soggy UK in the Northern Hemisphere and we are both fans of a good sewing pun, hence we came up with the title 'Hem-isphere project'!

As you can see from these four images, Cecile (pictured above) is an incredibly impressive sewer. Everything she makes is seriously beautiful, fits her extremely well and is thoroughly wearable.

She also has an excellent eye for lovely fabric, kitsch but subtle prints and flawless finishing. Maybe it's something to do with the fact that she's French. And despite the noticeable lack of leopard print and anchors in her creations, I'd be happy to desert the contents of my wardrobe and shack up with the contents of Cecile's instead! Except I don't think all those wonderful light-weight cotton, sleeveless creations would serve me very well in the UK.

Anyways, I'm very thankful that Cecile is a fan of my Clothing & Poetry Project. Once the idea was floated, we both jumped at the chance to work on a project together. Having never seen each other in the flesh, we agreed it would be difficult to create well-fitting garments for each other, so instead we decided to swap things that would act as starting points for our own sewing projects.

Each package will contain two, three or so elements that the recipient can choose to use as they please. For example, a package may contain a piece of fabric, set of buttons and a sewing pattern. It is up to the recipient to decide which item, or combination of items will be used in the project. The first packages that we sent each other earlier this month were an open theme, but the following packages will have a common theme decided upon in advance alternately by Cecile and myself.

Would you like to see the contents of those first packages? Of course you do! You've read this far, after all!

My package to Cecile:

Two sewing patterns. An early 1960s dress with gathered shoulder yoke detail and tie collar (which I used here) and a 1970s smock pattern with pleated front panel and front button fastening (which I used here). I deliberately chose patterns that I'd already made so that I knew the would be likely to give Cecile a good result if she decided to work with either of them.

Check cotton fabric. This fabric length is long enough for Cecile to complete either of the above sewing patterns, if she chooses to. It is also light-weight enough for her to wear during La Reunion's tropical Summer, which being in the Southern Hemisphere, she is experiencing now. I had this fabric sitting in my stash for at least six months gathering. We just don't get enough of a sustained summer for me get much use from a garment made from this lovely light-weight fabric. If I still lived in Barcelona, then it would be a different matter... I can't wait to see what she makes!

Cecile's package to me:

Awesome 1950s blouse pattern, pretty beige lace edging, vintage belt buckle and sequin anchor. I'm really excited about the contents of this package. She's clearly spent quite some time considering my style and preferences, which I really appreciate.

A closer look at the smaller contents. Now, I'm not going to give away how I plan to use these things, but expect an update blog post with completed creation before March!