Dreaming of Sewing "The Couture Dress"

I haven't sewn much lately.  I had very little inspiration this summer, and now that the kids are back in school, I'm barely able to keep up with them in the evenings, let alone find time to sew.  Although I have been strict about making time to exercise every day.

Losing weight hasn't helped inspire me to sew, either.  Most of what I've made myself in the past year is a bit baggy, and I intend to continue shrinking, so don't have much incentive to sew for myself - yet.  Of course I could be taking apart clothes and altering them to fit my slightly smaller figure, but that seems so boring!  Why rip out seams and sew them back together when you can handle a beautiful wool crepe or silk taffeta?  Maybe even add some horsehair braid to the hem?

While riding my exercise bike, I watch a sewing-related video.  At least I can enjoy sewing vicariously through someone else!  Not long ago, I started "The Couture Dress" with Susan Khalje.  What a great class!  I've taken several Craftsy classes, but this is by far my favorite.

Even though I'm not learning a lot of new techniques, I love just watching.  Susan's teaching style is sublime and I enjoy seeing the dress come together, so gracefully.  She sets the bar high.  So high that I'm reluctant to start a dress of my own for fear that I will disappoint myself.  I actually started watching it a second time.  At the very least, it will reinforce some good habits for me.

Next up is my daughter's homecoming dress...if I can ever get her to decide on a fabric.  She selected Butterick 5850 several weeks ago.  It's an "easy" pattern, but I'm sure I will find a way to complicate it.  After witnessing my orange dye debacle, she is actually considering a custom-dyed fabric (in silk, of course).  We'll see.  If she waits much longer, it will be a polyester taffeta from Hancock.

Butterick 5850 (butterick.mccall.com)

The Tangerine Bow Tie

My husband prefers to wear a tuxedo for evening events.  Even if they're not specified as black tie events, if it's after six, he's in his tuxedo.  I do believe that it is always better to be over-dressed than under-dressed, and I'm quite impressed that he can still wear the suit he wore to our wedding!  Not to mention how easy it is to put an outfit together for a formal affair.  I'm envious.

He usually wears the traditional black tie, but for the last two "Color" events he has asked me to make a bow tie to match the color theme.  Last year, I made a green tie using the same satin as my daughter's jumpsuit, using Angela Osborn's free pattern.  It's a good pattern, with great instructions, but it probably would work better with a cotton fabric that isn't slippery, since it is a tie that needs to be tied on the wearer, not one with adjustable hardware that just snaps in back.

Of course it was a last minute thing, and we really didn't have time to re-make it after realizing that it was on the small side.

A little small, but really not too bad.

This year, I pressed him to wear a suit with a "normal" tie -- "you can find an orange tie at Dillards," I suggested.  Nope.  He just bought a new tuxedo shirt, and was insistent that he would wear his tuxedo.  "Besides, I want to match you."

For the tangerine tie, I decided to use a commercial pattern (Vogue 7104) which is adjustable, but requires hardware.  I ordered the hardware from WAWAK, with a couple of weeks to spare.  A couple of weeks is really planning ahead for me.  Apparently not far enough, though.

The package arrived from Fed Ex a couple of days after I placed the order, empty!  The envelope opened during shipping and the contents were lost.  No problem, they can re-ship it, we still have more than week before the event, right?  Nope. The hardware was back-ordered.

So I made Angela Osborn's version again, this time a little bigger.  Steve decided that it needed an extra 2" in length.  That seemed a bit excessive to me, but he's usually good at estimating.  We both thought the width of the bow needed to be expanded slightly, as well.  The orange silk charmeuse that I dyed for my underlining was so striking, and he really wanted it for his bow tie.  I thought it would be nice for it to be seen, since it really wasn't all that noticeable as an underlining.

The charmeuse was slip-slip-slippery -- as any idiot would expect -- and a little too floppy for a bow tie.  I underlined it with silk organza to give it some structure (I don't really like the look of a fusible behind silk).  I added 2 inches to the length, and an extra 5/8" to the width.  It came together rather quickly, although cutting small pieces of charmeuse on the bias is a bit fiddly.

It took me even longer (almost an hour) to tie it!  The silk was so slippery, the length was a bit too long, and the width was slightly clownish (at least on the tail end -- you can see below).  But it was the day of the event, and I couldn't talk him into going back to his black tie.

This was probably the best it looked all night!

Since it was so slippery, the tie moved all over his neck throughout the evening, requiring constant re-tying and re-positioning.  At one point he came out of the men's room and mentioned that it was hideous.  I laughed (but had to agree), and re-tied it.  It looked good for another 20 minutes.

My bow tie hardware from Wawak arrived about a week after the event -- a full dozen sets of bow tie hardware.  So I will eventually try Vogue 7104.  I'll wait for everyone to forget about the tangerine tie, though.