Featherstitch Avenue

Style and Couture Sewing

I’m A Convert

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Black Eyelet Tunic, The Tunic Bible

White Lace Tunic

It was about a year ago when Sarah Gunn from Goodbye Valentino contacted me.  She wanted to know if I would be interested in participating in a project she was working on with Julie Starr.  The project was top secret and I had to sign on without knowing what I was signing on to.  I didn’t hesitate a bit and said yes immediately.  At the time I had only been blogging about 8 months and I was really looking to be a part of a sewing community.

After saying yes to who knows what, I started to speculate.  Maybe I’d be trying out a pattern, making a garment, and putting my own spin on it.  Hmmmm, yeah, I’ve got some ideas.  Yeah, I’ve got this, I was thinking to myself.  As I looked through my closet and my fabrics, I thought to myself, well, the only thing I don’t do is tunics, but hey, what are the odds?!

Black Tunic from the Tunic Bible

White Lace Tunic

I anxiously awaited the email with the big reveal, and guess what!  It’s a book about TUNICS!  Uh oh.  Hang on a minute while I panic.  Maybe I don’t got this.

Okay, so here’s me, googling and pinning like crazy, breathing into paper bags.  It was my “make it work” moment.  By the time I had the pattern in hand, I was ready to tackle the challenge.  And here’s the thing–as much as I worried that I wouldn’t be able to make a tunic that felt like me, I ended up making a garment that has my style more than anything I’ve made so far. Is it because I fretted over it so long and so hard?  Maybe a little. But mostly I think it’s because a tunic may be the most versatile garment there is.  Kudos to Sarah and Julie for figuring that out.

Tunic Detail, Placket and Sleeves

White Lace Tunic

The Tunic Bible gives you all the tools to create something that is uniquely “you”.  I didn’t think they could do it but I’m now a believer! So I went ahead and made a second tunic.  The only two tunics in my closet, but not my last.  I’ve got more ideas, all queued up, waiting to get sewn.

Tunic Detail, Bib Placket

White Lace Tunic

Let’s talk specifics.  For both of the tunic dresses, I used the bib placket.  The black one has two eyelet fabrics that I combined.  I used a semi-sheer eyelet on the placket and sleeves.  Instead of interfacing the placket, I underlined it with a stiff muslin.  This served the purpose of providing structure but also a nice backing for the semi-sheer eyelet so that the main eyelet fabric wouldn’t show through.  The sleeves are the fitted sleeve option which I shortened a bit, then added the scalloped ruffle.  I used a pintucked trim around the bib and on top of the sleeve ruffle.

The white lace dress was sewn differently in that I wanted the lace unstructured and unlined.  I had to use a tricky corner seam to attach the bib placket on this one.  The bib is constructed using strips of lace cut from the main fabric and stitched together. Technically the bib placket is slightly more narrow than the pattern but that’s due to the width of the lace strip.  I added a silk charmeuse bias binding and ties to the neckline to hold everything up.   Inside, the seams were bound with silk charmeuse. For the sleeves, I added a bell to the end to give it more length.  I decided not to sew the back darts on this tunic, since I preferred to have the lace uninterrupted.  It gives it a slightly more boxy feel than the black tunic which is fitted with the back darts.

Black Tunic from The Tunic Bible

White Lace Tunic

Now I know you’re thinking, I have to have this book.  Well, you are in luck because I’m giving one away!  Please leave me a comment and you will automatically have a chance at winning!  The winner will be announced on October 11.

If you don’t already know, this post has been part of the blog publicity tour for The Tunic Bible.  Be sure to check out what other bloggers have done with the tunic pattern.  I’ve posted the schedule below.  See you soon.

Pattern, Bib Placket Tunic Dress, The Tunic Bible (Both Dresses)

Fabric, Black Eyelet and White Lace, B&J Fabric

Photography by Santiago Vanegas

The Tunic Bible Blog Tour

A Thread Through Time

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Liberty and Lace Top

Liberty and Lace Top

Liberty and Lace Top

Pattern, Alice Top, Tessuti Patterns

Fabric, Liberty Lawn Print, B&J Fabrics

Photography by Santiago Vanegas

When I was 5 years old, my family moved into my great grandparents house. The large old place was pretty much as my great grandfather left it, which meant it was filled up with the most amazing collection of history you can imagine. It was common to unearth antebellum ball gowns, World War I bayonets, and every National Geographic magazine probably since their inception. My sister, my brother and I spent loads of time exploring closets and armoires, searching for treasures, and we found plenty. Looking back on it now I realize it’s the stuff of children’s novels, as good as finding a hidden door to a secret garden.

Those treasure hunts were formative experiences that I’ve carried with me throughout my life. Whether I’ve been working to preserve historic architecture or photographing abandoned buildings, preservation plays a big role in who I am and what I do.

What we leave behind and what we carry forward matters. It’s no different in the world of sewing. Making clothes is rich with history and tradition and as I continue to grow as a designer and sewist, I understand the importance of bringing the older skills to my current era. This top represents my first attempt at heirloom sewing.

A while ago, my friend Anna took me to visit her mom Ashley who is an incredibly talented and accomplished heirloom seamstress. To be able to look at and handle the garments, gowns, and bedcovers she created was such pure joy for me. But the gift didn’t stop there. Ashley no longer sews and she very VERY graciously decided to pass on her beautiful stash of fabric and lace trim to me. I’m still overwhelmed by her generosity.

At first I was intimidated about using anything from her stash because whatever I made could never rise to her level of expertise. But eventually I realized that the best way to honor Ashley and her gift to me was to use what she gave me. So this sweet top was made with a whole bunch of gratitude and a respect for the traditions of sewing. Heirloom sewing can use a variety of techniques but for this project, I tried out pintucks and lace insertion.

In keeping with our historic theme, it seemed only right to apply the same thinking to our photography. Santiago made the images above with a pinhole attachment on his digital camera. An act of bringing together the old with the new. Because there was no lens and merely a tiny pinhole, the exposure was two minutes long. Meaning I sat still, not moving for the entire two minutes that the camera was capturing the image. The “soft focus” comes from the nature of the pinhole and my micro-movements during the exposure. I’ve heard that when people had their portraits taken long ago, they were strapped into a chair to help them to stay still.

(For more detailed and sharper images, scroll down.)

That’s it for this week. Look for another post on October 5. It’s gonna be a good one with the very first Featherstitch Avenue giveaway! See you then.

Liberty Alice Top

Liberty Alice Top

Alice Top, Back

Alice Top, Detail

The Acorn Dress

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French Lace and a Basset Hound

French Lace and a Basset Hound

French Lace and a Basset Hound

French Lace and a Basset

Ringo and the Acorn Dress

Dogs and a Dress

Dogs and a Dress

Pattern, Marfy 3957

Fabric, Lace, Sophie Hallette

Lining, 4-ply silk crepe, Mood Fabrics

Trim, Mokuba Ribbon

Photography by Santiago Vanegas

Our family has had a long running joke about our own personal food cycle that plays out daily at our house.  It goes like this–Sookie, our Catahoula Leopard Hound and resident squirrel patrol, chases the squirrels.  The squirrels throw acorns at her.  Ringo, our Basset Hound, rounds up all those acorns in his big mouth and collects them in a pile in our dining room, where he can chew them up whenever he feels like it.  When Ringo’s supply gets low (or non-existent because I’ve cleaned it up), he has a way of encouraging Sookie to get to work pissing off the squirrels so he can replenish his stash.  Ringo must have been thrilled when he hit the motherlode of all acorns.  It truly was huge! I guess he was so excited that he forgot he had to chew and swallowed the darn thing whole.

Why am I telling the story of Ringo and The Acorn (capitalization intentional)?  Because this little drama with The Acorn unfolded when I was at my couture workshop with Susan Khalje.  My week with Susan is always one of the highlights of my year, so it was particularly painful to have to cut it short and rush home.  But Ringo is my baby and there was no question where I should be.  So, how do I know that Ringo swallowed this enormous acorn without so much as a single chomp?  Well, I know because the vet gave us The Acorn after surgically removing it AND 40% of his damaged intestines AND his spleen.  Ringo spent a week in the critical care unit on a feeding tube where things looked very grim.  But as you can see from the photographs, I’m happy to report he’s made a full recovery.  I’ve put a stop to our food cycle and acorns are now enemy #1.

And the dress you see above, yes, you guessed it, is the one I was working on during my sewing workshop.  This dress will be forever linked with the drama of The Acorn.  Nothing to do but go ahead and call this The Acorn Dress.  And our story has the best possible ending.  A healthy dog and a finished dress!  And I am so grateful!!

Okay, let’s talk about the dress…Previously I had used lace trim on a few garments but this was my first attempt to make something out of lace fabric.  Nothing like cutting into some very fine lace from Paris on your first time out!  The lace comes from Sophie Hallette and I owe a debt of gratitude to my friends Nel and Leisa for very graciously making the appointment and guiding me to the very hard to find showroom.  It was so difficult to decide what to buy because I wanted everything!  But finally I opted for something in an unusual pattern and a color that you don’t typically see in lace.

It was a no brainer to tackle the construction of this dress under the guidance of Susan.  No way would I have taken scissors to this lace without her watching over my shoulder.  Everything was planned meticulously–studying the lace, laying out the dress pattern, carefully matching the lace design at all (or most) of the seams.  But my favorite part of making this was far and away working on the lace flounce.  I needed to preserve the beautiful scallops at the edge of the lace, but the flounce pattern piece is not a straight edge but a curve.  Susan showed me how to cut into the lace almost to the bottom, then overlap the cut section giving a gentle curve to the bottom edge.  The overlap is stitched together and the excess is cut away to create an invisible seam.  It’s magical!!

Other details include a narrow machine hem on the silk crepe, a hand picked couture zipper, and Mokuba ribbon stitched around the waist, the armholes, and the neckline.

No doubt about it, I’m now addicted to lace and can’t wait to start another lace project soon.  The last time I was in New York, Leisa and I (and Santiago too, bless him!) went shopping in the garment district and we both bought the same gorgeous lace to interpret in our own way.  Stay tuned to see what we come up with.

See you soon.