Friday 5 March 2010

Calvin Klein and I

I had this intention of making a new dress for saturday, when I shall visit a gent's dinner (after dinner) to sip champagne in style.

The men (or should I say gents?) are to wear tuxedo's (as opposed to their "normal" attire, smokings), but I have decided to ignore the normal female tuxedo dress-code, long dress, and wear something less formal, but still very dressy. Partly because of a lack of suitable clothes (I do have a gorgeous, white silk ballgown from the 1940's that my grandmother gave to me, but I think it's way too formal).

I have once again been proved that I'm a hopeless time-optimist though, instead of a dress I've made the base for a dress-foundation.

Oh well. I'll have to wear something else tomorrow and wear the dress some other time, you can never have to many just-in-case-party-dresses in your closet, can you?

At first I intended to drape myself a dress, I found this wonderful polyester (? I never thought I would call a polyester wonderful..!) satin (?) for almost nothing at Olssons Tyger & Stuvar (where you can buy remnants by weight, with a red warp and a black weft (or the other way around maybe...), but that project had to be abandoned since 1. my dressform is very slippery (no cover yet) and 2. the material is heavy, stretchy and very drapey =it slips right off the dress-form. Oh well again.



I might have hated it if I didn't like the way it looks so much... it's mysteriously black-reddish on the right side, and a rich, shiny red on the wrong (I don't want to line the skirt, it will be too pretty on the inside!).

Here's what it looked like when I wrapped myself in it. Would have loved to make something like that (maybe next time)! Oh, and I have to admit I am wearing a corset in the picture (I can actually make my waist almost as thin as famous Dita in it, but I had pulled it as little as I could in the picture. Still, it makes a difference! Not that you could tell I'm wearing it in the picture, I just look slim.... hehehe).








To move around the draping-problem and make something easier I dug out a "vintage" Calvin Klein pattern (1980's or 1990's?) that I got at E-bay, Vogue American Designer no 2050, from my sewing stash and was happy to discover that it comes with a dress foundation and inside belt, just what I want to learn how to use!






















Searcing for the pattern online I stumbled upon this picture of an actress called  RoseByrne (never heard of her but she's really pretty in a really pretty dress) wearing a more recent Calvin Klein dress, and it does have a resemblance to "my dress"! Fun.

Although it's not a pricess-seam-dress like mine, there is something about the neckline....


Yesterday I got into it, made a usable toile for the foundation to test the fit, made corrections to it and transfered them to the pattern.

But, of course, if you're used to sewing with your own patterns, without seam allowances included, you mess it up if you forget that commercial patterns come with seam allowances inluded. I simply removed them from all pieces I made adjustments to, dope!

On my second day of sewing I'm about to make the back piece for the foundation. I'm lucky it's a pretty basic shift-dress!

And today, just to make it totally impossible to finish the dress in time, I went to a concert with a rather new artist that I've  liked a lot for a long time, Marina and The Diamonds. She just released her first album on february the 22nd, but she released a few songs that I all love about a year ago, so it was a very happy surprise to hear the first interesting ad ever at Spotify yesterdy, that she was playing in Stockholm tonight.
 
And for free!

So here's one happy girl who just saw one of her favourites live (though only four songs...). Listen at Myspace here, or Spotify here (you need an account for that one and it's not available worldwide... yet). If they had sold Cd's I would have bought one, but for some reason they didn't....

Oh, and I shot a video with my favourite baby-toy-Iphone. The sound isn't the best and I clumpsily missed the beginning and held the phone the wrong way (easier but still wrong), but here it is:



Funny thing, at the end she says "I'm going to eat some semla", that's the bun with cream and marsipan that I posted about before, I guess even if you like someone's music you don't necessarily share the same taste in food ;-)

7 comments:

  1. I can't wait to see your dress; the fabric looks gorgeous in your draping picture! Very glamorous and sophisticated! I've never made a dress with an internal belt... you don't see that sort of thing in patterns anymore.
    And definitely you can never have too many just-in-case party dresses. One must be prepared...
    (Thankyou for your sensible, measured and intelligent comments last night)

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  2. first, I thought that was the finished dress that you just wrapped yourself in the fabric in the first pic. it looks gorgeous just like that!
    and the vintage dress pattern is gorgeous. can't wait to see it :)

    I stumbled across Marina and The Diamonds on someoneelse's blog, and I liked her! lucky that you got see them for free :)!

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  3. Love the fabric and ideas for draping the dress! Also, really liked Marina and the Diamonds...I have never heard of them...they sound great! How fun to see them live!

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  4. I'm looking forward to seeing the finished dress. The draping the fabric around looked very convincing (but I know a corset would help at that, even if its just for providing an edge to hold the fabric at the top). I hope you had fun at the event.
    P.S. If I remember correctly, you were one of the people rooting for a tutorial for my tiny shrug. I've made it last week, it's at http://petitmainsauvage.blogspot.com/2010/02/belofte-maakt-schuld-as-dutch-would-say.html with sewing instructions at http://petitmainsauvage.blogspot.com/2010/02/from-pattern-to-garment-tiny-shrug.html

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  5. Oh I love Marina and the Diamonds! They were interviewing her on the radio this morning. She seemed lovely.

    STUNNING fabric. Your corset reminded me of this idea: (I've been meaning to make one of these dresses for ages but have not had the occasion..). This girl: http://www.etsy.com/shop/sarahseven
    makes dresses by draping fabric onto a bustier and then sewing it on. So you just buy a bustier that fits you, then drape and you don't have to worry about making it fit or anything. GENIUS idea, I am very upset that I didn't think of it first!

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  6. That "dwraped" version is amazing, an Oscars worth dress! and you look so beautiful. Can't wait for the real one!

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  7. You just happened to drape yourself in the fabric, and it looked that fantastic? I was convinced it was a finished, and intricately made dress! You impress me so Karin!

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