Vogue 2637 Evening Skirt

It's been a while since I posted. But in my absence, I've been working on a sewing project in addition to working some crazy hours. Our niece's wedding was October 11 and I needed something to wear. I already had part of an ensemble, starting with a sweater I bought last holiday season from Coldwater Creek but never wore. It was an orphan piece, so I decided to make a matching skirt. I found an excellent match at Silk Baron, so while waiting for the Evergreen silk dupioni to arrive, I began auditioning patterns.

My first choice was the Iris Skirt from LaFred. Unfortunately, this pattern line is no longer in production due to the untimely death of its creator but the design is classic. I traced it off and made a prototype out of one of the many cuts of fabric I bought from the Vera Wang liquidation. This one:

The Iris Skirt pattern is really great. The pattern is well drafted and the view I chose includes lining pieces for a kick pleat. The guide sheet has excellent instructions for installing an invisible zipper, too. I loved putting it together, but quickly realized that it would take longer to perfect the pattern than the time I had available. I've set it aside for now and will revisit it later. A good pencil skirt (with pockets!) is definitely worth developing into a TNT pattern.

By this time the dupioni had arrived and was prepared for sewing by machine washing and drying. I usually prewash dupioni because it knocks down the shine and mitigates the risk of water spotting.  I decided to revisit a TNT pattern that I had successfully used before, Vogue 2637. This is an early 1990s pattern that I previously used for my wedding so I knew it would work.

Like the view of the Iris Skirt that I tried, it's a pencil style with pockets and a kick pleat. But this skirt has an elastic waist instead of a zipper. That's ok because I had not planned to tuck in the matching sweater.

When making the skirt, I underlined the dupioni with flannel. This is a technique I learned from Sandra Betzina and Kenneth King's books. Underlining strengthens the garment and prevents wrinkling when wearing. My mom also used this technique when making dance costumes for me and my sister--it makes the garment look more luxe as well. I have plenty of flannel in my stash and just used one of them. The print doesn't show through the dark fabric.

I also lined the skirt to finish it. Because I had made it before, I had already drafted a lining pattern The poly charmeuse is (again) just something from my stash. It's a nice surprise to have a pretty print inside.

Wedding activities started around 3 pm and continued late into the evening, and the skirt performed perfectly through the ceremony, photos (in the cold!), pre-reception cocktails, and reception dinner with dancing.  The only thing I would have changed is to snug up the waistband a little bit more. I did the fitting without wearing shape wear, but added spanx for the wedding (which I forgot to wear in the photo above!). Oh well, still wearable and easily fixable in the future.

Farewell, Fred

I was fortunate enough to take several classes from Fred Bloeblum at ASG Conferences I've attended over the years. She always did a wonderful job of organizing and presenting her classes, and I always came away feeling that I had gained a lot of information. She was also always gracious when answering questions and offering suggestions about her pattern line, La Fred, when working her vendor booth.


I'm so glad that I took an extra day to attend the Insiders' Tour of Santa Fe after last year's ASG Conference in Albuquerque. Fred put a wonderful tour together. It included a trip to the Santa Fe Opera and a visit to her second home in Santa Fe, where she hosted a trunk show of buttons and jewelry by local artists.

Fred passed away on Saturday, so unfortunately, I won't get to see her again. But I have memories of some lovely moments talking sewing and for that, I'll always be grateful. Thanks Fred, for your warmth and grace, and may you rest in peace.

ASG Conference Classes

I took several classes, but I've learned since my first Conference not to take a class for each and every time they're available. You'll run yourself ragged, and it's information overload.

This time, I took the following:

• Louise Cutting, "Cutting It Apart": This one was an optional class that took all day Thursday. We made a bunch of samples under Louise's direction. Awesome class!! I think I learned a lot about Louise's approach to sewing, things that can be applied to other patterns as well.
  


• Louise Cutting, "Cutting and Pasting": This one was a short class that was more oriented specifically towards Louise's pattern line vs. techniques. I enjoyed this class because she talked about ways to play around with each pattern to develop unique looks.
  


• Susan Lazear, "Domino Design": Susan is a bit of a sleeper, in that she isn't a big hype sewing "personality." On the other hand, she does teach college level classes in fashion design, so she does know what she's talking about from a technical standpoint. The Domino theory is "to begin with one fabric, and as you add a piece to the wardrobe, you introduce a new fabric to the mix. As each subsequent fabric is added, a new fabric is introduced and and an existing fabric is dropped. This is the domino effect." OK, so I'm not going to apply this to each and every item I buy/make. But it was an interesting approach to wardrobing, so I'll give her that.
  


• Susan Lazear, "Armholes and Sleeves: Solving the Mystery": Sleeves are usually a mystery to most sewists. Susan provided a lot of detail on how a sleeve is developed, where bust shaping is incorporated into the sleeve, and finetuning of various sleeves and armholes.
  


• Mary Ray, "Designs in Details" Mary is a contributing editor to Threads Magazine and was formerly on staff. Beautiful sample garments, but she had to fight the skinny/deep layout of the room. The details were beautiful, but I wish she'd had some slides to give close up views.
  


• Jacque Goldsmith, "Adapting Vintage Patterns": Jacque is a younger sewing professional who has worked in the industrial and home sewing aspects of the clothing industry. Fearless about working with all kind of vintage patterns. I enjoyed the class and look forward to working with some of the vintage and vintage-reproduction patterns I have.
  


• Fred Bloebaum, "What's New With Knits": Fred is very organized and always provides an outline of her talks. Plus loads of samples that she passes around the room so you can experience what she's talking about. Look forward to seeing knits in unusual fibers for the foreseeable future. Anything that can be spun will be knitted.
  

ASG Conference: Insiders' Tour of Santa Fe

I'm a little hesitant to make yet another blog post showing "stuff" that I got. Yes, I'm feeling a bit guilty because I did go off the deep end during the Conference. On the other hand, I can afford it, it brings me joy, and I will use these things in the furtherance of my sewing skills. I expect that things will even out, and I will step away from the credit card machine for a while.

At any rate, shopping isn't all I did on this tour.

There were things to see and do as well. After taking the buses from Albuquerque to Santa Fe, the first item on our agenda was a tour of the Santa Fe Opera, with our docent David. Even if you're not into opera, it's a cool place to see. It was founded in the 1950s with the goal of giving American opera singers an opportunity to learn and perform new roles in a setting that allowed ample time to rehearse and prepare each production. The Santa Fe Opera is a highly regarded opera festival that takes place in July and August of each year. Its mission is to present productions meeting the highest artistic standards in a repertory of new, rarely performed, and standard works.

In addition to the theater, we got to see the scenery, prop and costume shops. And the piece de resistance: costume storage! Up until that point, we were unable to take pictures because people were busy working on the next opening but the costume meister gave us a special opportunity to touch and photograph the costumes. Apparently this is not something that normally happens on the tour. Here are some pictures from that portion of our visit:



The smiling redhead in the green shirt is the costume meister. Thank you!!


We also had lunch there. The opera is located on the site of a former dude ranch and some of the original buildings are still there, near the cafe where we ate. Here are some photos of the pool area and plants around the cafe.



I wish I could make my xeriscape look so good!

Next, our bus went to Fred Bloebaum's home for a Trunk Show. Fred is the creative force behind the La Fred pattern line. Somehow we managed to get an entire busload of sewing ladies into the house for some shopping (after my preamble you knew there'd be shopping, right?).


In addition to her pattern line and some fabrics, there were vintage buttons by Sarah Lee Chavez and jewelry by Terry Wrobel. Here's what I got:


Our next stop was the Museum of International Folk Art. Our docent was the delightful Toby, a tiny little lady who was able to express much knowlege and delight throughout our tour. We visited two galleries: the first had the textiles of SW China's minority people and second had the shadow puppet theaters of Indonesia. I previously visited the museum in the fall, and it's one of my favorite activities in Santa Fe.

Our last stop was Santa Fe Plaza for more shopping. By this time I was about done in, and we didn't have a lot of time. I did get a very inexpensive tiered black skirt at a little "hole in the wall" Guatemalan shop. It cost all of $20. It needs a little work to remove a dopey ruffle at the bottom, but it'll be a fun piece for the summer. It has unruffled tiers of bias cotton, the edge of each tier left raw. I didn't take a picture of this; it's black and the details don't show well.

I also got a little sewing inpiration from Fred. After almost of week of wearing only her own line, she wanted to wear something different. So she sewed up an interesting green linen skirt that was based on one owned by a friend. LJ Designs has a very similar pattern, the Asymmetrical Skirt, which I hope I still own. It will look great in a solid; all of the previous ones I've made were in prints.