pimpinett: (Default)
( May. 1st, 2009 11:11 pm)
Every spring I scoff at the idea of specal summer clothes, thinking that I can just as well live through the summer in wool skirts and heavy slacks (seriously, how hot does it even get around here?), and every year I get the same slightly panicky reality check when the first late spring heatwave arrives. I thought I would be a little bright for once this year, plan ahead and make a few summer garments that are not the sloppy result of some frantic can't-stand-the-heat-anymore sewing, so I'm making a pair of 40's styled shorts.
Plain black rayon/poly/something mix with a twill structure, nice drape and a tiny bit of stretch, six of those huge, black American Navy peacoat buttons closing a functional sailor flap, wide legs and somewhere between mid-thigh and above the knee in length.

So, what do you lovely people think? Cuffs or not?
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There's more, but I was not photogenic yesterday. Have been inexplicably exhausted today, so this is it for now - I will have a closer look at the rest of them tomorrow.



As usual, it's not completely finished yet, I'm going to add piping to the pocket flaps on the sleeves, and possibly some topstitching on the pockets themselves to keep them from bulging too much (if/when I can be bothered to remove them from the sleeves, and maybe the sleeves from the dress as well). I'm not sure I'm pleased with the cap either. Well, well.

I am pleased with the shoulder pads, though. Just needed to say that again - although I might beef them up even more.

Edit: fuck it, I'm wide awake all of a sudden. A few more (artsy-fartsy, B/W) ones here. )
pimpinett: (Default)
( Apr. 8th, 2009 07:09 pm)
The leather bodice is nearly finished, just a few more buttons to attach (and decide whether I want some kind of silver braid on it, but that's a secondary if-I-have-time issue), the skirt is about half done, and the fabric for the shirt is drying as I write. Found rather a nice, pale grey cotton for practically no money at all, lucky me, and also this pin:



Vintage, pewter, probably a souvenir, perfect for this outfit. I also picked up a vintage bottle of Youth Dew - scary stuff, today I think it makes even more of a statement than other strong personalities in my fragrance arsenal, like Bulgari Black, Messe de Minuit and Angel, but I think (I hope) that I have the stones to pull it off - it can be my dirty old woman perfume, like Angel was my dirty young woman perfume! - and these:



About 3 cm across. On a collar, perhaps? I suspect silver plate, seeing the way they are worn, but I'm not sure with that white oxidation, or whatever it is. Probably just pot metal, I will see what happens when I polish them up a little.

Horrible quality. I really must set up some kind of shoot in daylight, but I'm uncomfortable around cameras and I keep putting this off until later - when it's warmer, when the days are longer... The sun doesn't set until around five in the afternoon now, but still.



Two more. )
I did have some grey fabric that worked after all - it has no green undertones, but looks fine with the M/59 buttons anyway in small amounts and will match several other garments as well.

 

Black cotton twill, the piping is a black and beige shot cotton/rayon fabric that reads as grey, and I have posted about the signalist badge before.

Oh, and I finally got my hair up in a halfway decent Swiss braid. Far from great, but definite progress, and for once I feel that my hair might actually be too short - odd, considering that I've been thinking about cutting it off and trying to go back to my natural colour lately.
Now there's Tech Noir on Saturday as well as Hootchy Kootchy Club, and a couple of people I'd like to get to know better will be in Stockholm, with plans to attend From Russia With Love at KGB. The current idea is burlesque first, KGB later, which creates wardrobe complications - Hootchy Kootchy is a great place to dress up, KGB has been fairly casual every time I've been there so far. I rather wanted to wear the Carmen Miranda turban or the corset with the American Red Cross buttons, but both are a bit much for KGB, I think. The corset might work if I dress it down a bit, but there is no way I can dress down the turban, it's just not humanly possible.

So I might fall back on that dress I made around Christmas, with the plastic M/59 buttons, and make a matching cap for it while I'm at it. Crossed brims in front and buttoned in the back would be fun, but the crossed brims model looks best with contrasting piping, and I don't think I have any fabrics that would work. I might look around for some tomorrow, but grey shades are difficult. There is almost always an undertone of some sort, the grey of these buttons pulls towards green, for example, and I think that would be hard to match.





This dress would make a great background for the subdued Soviet buttons, too. Pity I haven't got any of those yet, the olive drab would be much easier to match with a fabric for piping than this odd grey-tinged-with-green in the Swedish M/59 ones.

One more. )
pimpinett: (Default)
( Feb. 7th, 2009 03:26 am)
...I haven't really got anything worthwhile to post about, I'm just up way too late sewing (shit, look at the time!) and can't settle down from the flow enough to go to sleep yet. I am about three quarters done with a pencil skirt to match that jacket, finishing the rest tomorrow and then maybe I'll try to have some photos taken of my ass wearing it.

Debating whether to go to Bodytåget tomorrow. On one hand the band playing tomorrow doesn't sound like my cup of tea, on the other hand I really want to support the club, no matter what I happen to think of the live act - it is outrageously, passionately geeky, I love that. They have managed to keep a club focusing almost exclusively on Altmark and similar genres-within-the-EBM-genre alive for two or three years now, which is extremely impressive in a place like Stockholm, and there is no other club in town that regularly arranges gigs with small EBM bands. They deserve much more love than they get.
Actually, putting it like that, it's practically my duty to go. Yes.

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pimpinett: (Default)
( Feb. 4th, 2009 12:48 am)
Just finished a new warm winter cap, my old one is very shabby and not that warm either.
This new one is made to match the fantastic vintage jacket I got before Christmas - I don't know if I mentioned that. First time I've bought a vintage suit and been able to wear both the jacket and the skirt without alterations. I have had a hard time dating it, I'm leaning towards high quality 70's (the lining has fusible interfacing and overlocked edges, the buttons are undersewn and rounded, vaguely military-inspired in metal painted black, and the collar points are insane) but the cut might be late 40's/early 50's just as well. The tags in it look older, the zipper in the skirt is the vintage, heavy-duty metal kind, the button in the skirt is an older plastic one, and the quality of the pieces and the level of work that has gone into it is not that common in off-the-rack garments made after the 60's (the collar is stuffed with horsehair, for instance).

Not that it matters, it is beautiful, especially the jacket, which has a couple of inverted box pleats at the center back accented with two buttons, like on an old frock coat and it fits as if it was made for me, in spite of being ready-made. No lapels, just a large collar with exaggerated points. The skirt is a wide, flared model with lots of panels in that difficult mid-calf length, both of them executed in a thick, black wool coating. I have been wearing the jacket a lot the last couple of months, it's very warm and looks good with practically everything I wear. I don't love that type of wide skirt,  and the length makes me feel stumpy, but it's a very comfy skirt, so it has been in circulation a little too.

The cap is a similar fabric, as similar to the jacket as I could find. Keeping my fingers crossed that it will not wear and age dramatically differently, but it doesn't matter a lot anyway. There's enough for a pencil skirt too, hopefully with a couple of inverted box pleats in the back like the jacket.



That's how I keep them in place, by the way, huge hair pin (groß Frieda!) skewered through my bun and a clip or barrette on the inside of the cap further to the front - I can headbutt someone with one of these caps on and it won't budge.
A has the good camera, getting something remotely useful out of the bad camera in indoor light was a bit of a challenge, but it is a couple of pictures, at least - far more than I manage of most of my projects these days.
pimpinett: (Default)
( Jan. 28th, 2009 11:54 pm)
The green shirt, so far:



Made pattern, cut out the pieces, zig-zagged edges, sewed the darts and then I decided that I wanted to flat-line it after all, so unpicked darts, cut out cotton twill lining pieces,  zig-zagged them too and re-did the darts. Great planning! Resulted in some stitch marks in the fabric, of course, but I will have to live with them. This is one of the reasons I think I'm a pretty bad seamstress. At least I am pleased with the cuffs and collar, for a change.

This is one of the sleeves, obviously, and one of the shoulder straps. There's another photo showing the rest of it so far after the cut. )
Trousers more or less finished, only lacking in trouser hook, buckle for the flaps in the back and stirrups. (That's how early-19th-century-menswear-inspired they are - stirrups, for real.)

Waistcoat is as finished as I can make it without having tried it on A, who is MIA tonight; that is, not very but could be worse - at least I've done the lapels and fake collar bit, which was hell, I tell you, hell. I hope that if I keep forcing myself to make lapels and collars I will begin to find it easy sooner or later, like I did with pockets, but it hasn't happened yet. I love having lapels, but I hate making them.

My olive drab dress now has a kick pleat, buttoned with a little piped strap that looks like ass up close, but seeing as it will be kept buttoned when worn, and is located right under my own ass, I don't think anyone else will notice - it will be overshadowed, to throw in a really dreadful pun, sorry about that. I know that it looks like ass, though, so I'll have to fix that some day when I have nothing better to do.

Also vliesofixed the matching cap a bit, and lined it semi-properly. It's much improved.

I really must go to bed now.
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