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MADE | Archer Button up Silk Variation

November 17, 2014 By Chie

My second try on Grainline Studio Archer Button up shirt! I made the first one in chiffon polyester and was pretty happy with it. It was actually a wearable muslin to prepare for this silk shirt. My attempt to recreate this Equipment shirt without paying $300.

First, this was the most expensive fabric I bought for myself! I buy nice fabrics for bridal customers but I tend to go to sales rack for my own sewing… I ordered it online from Hideki for 2.5 meters, and it cost 5000 yen (50 USD). Thankfully I had my credit card points saved up so I got it for free more or less. The fabric is silk crape de chine in blue gray. I ordered a sample before purchasing. The store lets you order up to 10 samples but I think it is only available to Japan domestic customers. The color I ordered is now sold out but they still have it in pink and gray here.I made two modifications to the pattern.

1) add the pocket tab. When you look at this Equipment silk shirt, you can see that there are square pockets with tab on both sides. I drafted the pattern for the tab based on a Japanese sewing book all about pockets. It is pretty easy. The key to it is to add about 4mm on the width of the pocket tab, so that it sits slightly wider than the actual pocket.

2) add sleeve tabs (inspired by Sophie’s shirt!).
I like to roll up the sleeves. For fabrics like chiffon or silk crape de chine, it is hard to keep the roll up sleeves stayed since the fabric is slippery. That’s something I realized after wearing my previous shirt for a few times. I made the tabs based on the store bought shirt I have, but it turned out the width was a bit too narrow for the buttons I used. It was too late to fix it and not that noticeable so I did not fix it.

I always have hard time when I fold the facings under and topstitch in place from the right side of the garment. I hate the suprise of uneven hem or the hem not being caught. I had to unstitch and fix that.

So my question now is…how do you keep the silk shirt without a stain under armpits? I’ve seen one idea on Pinterest, where you attach panty liners on the shirt to prevent a stain. Although it might work just fine, that’s not the most sexy thing. When I wore this shirt, I just wore a long sleeve undershirt and used a lot of anti-perspirin (something I stock up when I go to the U.S.! Evidence here), but that means I can only wear this shirt in the winter. Any suggestions?Details | pattern: Grainline Archer Button Up | fabric: silk crape de chine from Hideki | Size: 2 | Modification: added pocket tabs and sleeve tabs |Interface: light weight fusible stretch interface

Outfit details | Shirt made by me, denim DIYed (blogged here), heels from Steven Madden.

シルクのシャツ、作りました。
Equipmentというブランドのシルクシャツが欲しかったのですが、とってもお高いので、自分で作ってみました。
生地はヨーロッパ服地のひできという楽天ショップで買ったシルクデシン。
柔らかくて、熱を保持するので、あったかいです。

デニムは３９０マートで買ったものを自分でリメイク♪

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MADE | Chunkeanie by Woolly Wormhead

November 10, 2014 By Chie

As a sewer, I had stayed away from knitting. I thought knitting was not productive, as it takes hours to complete one project, whereas you can sew up a piece of clothes in a few hours, especially for easy items like a t-shirt or a simple top. If it takes 6, 7 hours to knit up a simple hat, it makes more sense to buy one!? But my friend gave me a book on knitting in exchange for a can of pumpkin (bought during my recent Hawaii trip since they don’t sell a can of pumpkin in Japan..You have to mash them yourself) recently, and convinced me that I should knit. So when I picked up three balls of wool yarns for this simple knit hat project, I wasn’t the most excited. However, when I started the simple motion of knit, purl, knit, purl while watching the Tudors, I was hooked. Something about the simple repetition was so soothing.

Another reason why I had stayed away from knitting was because the knitting patterns confused me. For instance, the pattern I used, Chunkeanie by Woolly Wormhead read, “Rnd 1: *ssk, P16, k2tog; rpt from * to end [72 sts]”. I had no idea what it meant. Learning English was enough for me and I wasn’t ready to learn another language. Thankfully, we have a wonderful thing called Google and by just searching “ssk knitting”, I was able to find videos on youtube to explain what I should do.

I made the largest size in the pattern (the one starts from 80 stitches), and it fit Andy’s head perfectly. Every winter, he wears the ugliest black rib knit hat. I don’t even know where he found it. He said it wasn’t particularly comfortable so he agreed to let me replace his hat with this new one.

This was my first time knitting circle in DPNs. The end stitches are a bit loose, but it ended up being not noticable since the whole hat stretches out when you wear it.

I’m knitting another one for my friend, and thinking of embellishing the hat with some Swarovski crystals. After that, I might try Benton sweater by Brookyn Tweed. Jen’s version looks so good.

今年初の編み物完成品です。
Woolly Wormheadというサイトの、Chunkeanieという無料型紙を使って作りました。

使用したのは、１００％ウールの、100均の毛糸。1個半使いました。
サイズはいちばん大きいサイズを作って、旦那にぴったりでした。

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Three-Way Gold Lace Wedding Dress

November 6, 2014 By Chie

このページを日本語で読む

I love the idea of a wedding dress that can be worn in multiple ways. You put so much time and money into your dress, why not wear it more than once? I got to wear mine twice since I had weddings in both Japan and the U.S., but since then the dress has been abandoned in the back of my closet.

I worked with a bride this summer to make a dress that can be worn in three different ways. The first one is the simple strapless mini dress. The bride had in mind that she would be wearing this to go to weddings or events in the future. Then for her actual wedding, we came up with the idea of making a tulle skirt that can be worn on top of the mini dress. To change it up for reception, I also made a peplum top in matching sheer lace fabric.

The above is the inspiration image for the dress. It is in peach color but since we found this gorgeous gold lace fabric, we decided to go with it. They sell it in white and black as well. The fabric is very delicate and pretty. I was scared to put the shears through for fear of cutting a wrong piece or the tip of the shears poking through the lace. This is what it looks like inside before the lining was attached. Instead of using fusible interface, I used muslin fabric as the interface. This is my favorite method for wedding dresses, as you can use the muslin for the fitting, which is thread traced for the sewing lines. I stitch the muslin on satin each one by hand. This takes a long time! Also the bra cups are catch stitched, neckline is reinforced with twill tape and all the seam allowances are pressed and catch stitched to the muslin fabric. We decided to go with laced up back instead of zipper or fabric covered button since the bride just had a baby and her sizes were changing. I am happy with our decision since it is less stressful for both of us not to have to worry about the small size changes. Also this way, she can wear the dress for other occasions in the future.

When you see the ready-to-wear wedding dresses or rental wedding dresses in Japan, they usually use big white bra hooks looking things to lace up the back. I went to Okadaya in Shinjyuku and asked if they have the same notion, but they did not have it. They recommended using metal eyelet, but they are silver and did not look right on delicate gold lace. I decided to buy the bra hook and eye set and just use the eye part (talked about it in this video). I used 13 in total. It worked well since the satin ribbon I used for the lace up was thin. The eyes don’t really show in the right side of the fabric, and I was pleased with the result.

Lots of hand sewing involved!

The bridal sash was ordered at Garter Queen on etsy. I ordered the color which look the closest to the dress, but the one that arrived look slightly different from the satin ribbon I used for the lace up back. So I ended up making a trip back to Okadaya and picked up the wide width satin ribbon that matched perfectly, and glued the pearl and crystal part to the ribbon.