I am creating Vogue's 1937 Dress from pattern 573 in a featherweight black sheer wool. The wool has a fine grid weave which lends a graphic quality to the dress and gives it an edge. My intent is to demonstrate wool's diaphanous ability by using this sheer so the short sleeves, front scarf inset and skirt hem are left un-lined. This way, the translucent sheer is really played up against the opaque china silk-lined parts of the dress.
The second piece of my entry is Vogue's 1937 Coat from pattern 3916 in black wool jacquard. This is a medium-weight coating which is a little chunky with floral patterns in the weave so the jacquard surface reads almost as though it were pixilated. Parts of the jacquard weave are more open than others so there is a transparency in this wool as well. I will line the coat with a contrasting glacial blue silk satin, the idea being that as the coat moves and catches light, hints of the contrasting lining will pop through the more open parts of the jacquard weave. In tune with the dress, this is the coat's play on translucency and opacity.
Additionally, my approach has been to explore gradient, light and shadow as well as the different graphic scales of each fabric weave in this two-piece ensemble.
The first photo shows the dress bodice and skirt back cut from the sheer wool before I placed the respective interlining (click images for larger views):
The inside of the assembled coat before I placed the lining:
The dress bodice pieces (aside from the scarf front insert and sleeves) are interlined with silk organza to give structure and to obscure where seam allowances would show through the sheer. There is simply a lining under the skirt pieces. I left the skirt pieces without interlining as part of the gradient effect and for a natural hand of the sheer to be obtained. On that account, the skirt requires different treatment of the seams than those of the bodice (details about that later).
Each bodice piece was also cut in silk organza. I did not cut notches, but rather marked them with tailor tacks as shown in blue thread:
and hand-basted to the wrong side of each respective sheer piece:
I started assembling the dress by handling the pieces to be left sheer first. All non-seamed edges of the front scarf insert had to be hand-rolled before I could start joining seams.
I went for Threads Magazine's recommendation of Design Plus Straight Fusible Stay Tape (April/May 2014, issue 172) when rolling the neck edges of the scarf for support since the scarf closes at center front with hooks, bars and is trimmed with glass buttons. The tape is superfine weight and doesn't interfere with the fabric's natural hand. The tape I used is black, 3/8" wide. Since I hand-rolled edges that would only take up 3/8" of the fabric's edge where 5/8" seam allowances were given, I trimmed 1/4" off the edges to be hand rolled ONLY! This meant leaving the full 5/8" given where the scarf edges would not be rolled and thus joined in bodice seams. The photo shows a test piece having been trimmed. I did stay-stitching in white for visibility:
Right side of the front scarf insert, tailor tacks indicate placement so I know where to stop trimming for hand-rolling the edges:
Next post, I'll pick up at hand-rolling the scarf edges.
1 comment:
Looking forward to the next installment. I've never done hand-rolling xx
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